community dinners

On February 17, 2009 · 1 Comment · In life

the lyndale and the palmer houses are trying to get in the habit of communing for wednesday night dinners. these nights are a good time to get together and reconnect with our ‘village’.
jp and i often get carried away in the busyness and tedium of everyday going-ons. we remember to relax to greet each other but sometimes forget that we have beloved neighbors just three blocks away to catch up with and learn from.
these people are quite important to us. they have taught us much about marriage, parenthood, gardening, genorosity, music, service, church, fashion, gender issues, and on and on. it is their openness and honesty that we rely on to get a good idea of what life is like outside of our little family of three on palmer and to remind us of the importance of fellowship and reaching out.

we are big fans of all of this bc we love those on lyndale and also bc we love some family style cooking.

on this particular wednesday everyone came to our place.
jp was a cooking machine.

first he whipped up some homemade butter.
to do this at home, all you need is heavy whipping cream and an electric mixer, like our KitchenAid.
(oh, the joys of married life).
toss it in. mix. mix. keep mixing until finally the butter will separate from the buttermilk. ta da! half a pound of organic butter AND buttermilk for a little less than the price of store-bought organic butter.
it really is that easy.

it was soup and bread night so jp whipped up some sourdough (sorry, no photos) and this east african groundnut stew. yum-OH.
enough for everyone there and a handful of meals afterward.
here is the recipe. all i can say is peanut buttery goodness.