February 10th - Welcome to day 14 of the Myrrhmade Love Where You Are Challenge!
Come on in and join us!
Day 14: Revive A Favorite Recipe.
Today I'll be busy having a day-long Valentine's Day Celebration with my girls.
We have Vermont made heart pasta (some colored with beets), new heart leggings for the girls, cards from GramB and Daddy (and a little present they don't know about), felt heart pocket kits from a dear friend's Wee Things Fiber Arts (tell her I say hi!) and two other heart-shaped meals planned as well as a few surprises.
Daily Challenge: Revive A Favorite Recipe!
Think back to a favorite food from your childhood or a dish you haven't made in a while, dig up a recipe, and whip it up!
We all have so many options in our tool belts that we sometimes forget some of the options we already have. You may have a recipe box or a Pinterest board or just some really great memories.
Similar to Trying A New Recipe, making an old favorite can be a simple way to bring joy to a task that we have to do anyway. We've all got to eat. Bringing back old favorites is a great way of freshening up our home dining experiences.
Daily Mindset Mantra: Every day is a new chance to take better care of yourself.
I remember once reading a book about emotional eating and there was one phrase that really stuck out for me. I'd heard the phrase "don't reward yourself with food, you're not a dog" but this author's point was to not reward yourself with food unless the food itself is rewarding.
There are numbing foods and there are uplifting foods - dishes with meaning, good memories, made with fresh healthy ingredients can go a long way toward nurturing ourselves and helping us to Love Where We Are.
Bonus task: Ask someone for a recipe you remember loving when they made it.
Just like Asking For Help, contacting someone to let them know that you loved something they made is a great compliment. Asking for the recipe is also wonderful way to invest in your relationship with that person and to build stronger connections with your community.
Every time I've ever asked someone for a recipe they've always shared it gladly and been touched that I remembered the dish. While many people don't know how to handle compliments, this type is much more easily received as it has a concrete action in the past behind it. They may now think of you fondly when they make it again for themselves.
Plus you now have a new recipe for an old favorite dish!
My experience:
Thinking forward to this challenge, I dug out an old recipe.
This is a recipe from my maternal grandmother, written down by my brother from a phone conversation during a youth retreat he and I attended as teenagers. We suddenly found ourselves in charge of a meal with a small budget and few ingredients. Needing a recipe to fit all kinds of dietary needs, we thought of this hearty lentil soup and called our grandma. I don't recall why he wrote it down instead of me, as I've always been more literary and this is just what notepaper we could find, not what he would ever have on hand. But perhaps that is why I love the combination even more and appreciate that that moment in time is now this piece of ephemera that I treasure.
While I've made my own changes to the recipe (celery instead of parsley if we have don't have any, a fried egg on top instead of cheese underneath, etc.) and I'll add a variety of other vegetables to the mix, it still has the same basic components and flavor profile.
I fondly remember going back into her kitchen outside of Detroit (the whole house, not just the kitchen) many times for seconds. I remember the weight of the different handmade bowls that she and my grandfather got every year at a charity soup dinner, and think of her with love every time I make this recipe.
This hearty meal (shown with tricolor lentils above) is fantastic for when you have a variety of diets to accommodate - it's vegan, hearty, and filling on its own, add cheese or an egg and it's satisfying for people used to eating meat at most meals.
What favorite dish are you going to revive?
Make sure to check back here tomorrow for the next challenge, the next tips, and the next dose of the Myrrhmade Love Where You Are Challenge.
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