Around the Table: Chaos and Curry

Moving is a pain in the butt. It takes weeks to get everything ready, and you begin to wonder if you’re a hoarder and need to nominate yourself for that TLC show before you finally get to the point that you start throwing stuff in the trashcan, just so you don’t have to move it.

I know this because I just moved, and it went about like that. And right in the middle of everything, when the house was maybe in its most chaotic state, I decided life would not be complete unless I threw a dinner party.

Don’t even ask me why. Honestly, I should have been doing about one million other things.

But I needed, deep in my soul, two things:

1. People.

2. Food. (Specifically, mango chicken curry.)

We ate off paper plates and used plastic silverware because half the kitchen was in boxes.

We had to hustle the dining room table onto the deck because, days before, my roommates and I had sold the outside table at a garage sale.

I didn’t plan enough time to make the mango chicken curry so it turned out more like soup.

It was the kind of wild and messy I'm not entirely sure The Barefoot Contessa would approve of, but that dinner party was exactly what needed to happen. 

 I think there is something holy and grounded and filling about sitting around a table and eating together. It's different than grabbing a beer or sitting in the living room. And, even if it's kind of thrown together and the curry doesn't cook all the way, gathering around the table is nourishing for body, mind, and soul.

Around the table feels like family.

Around the table is a place people have been gathering since the beginning of time, to fill up their bellies and their hearts.

Around the table is a place of rest, even in the midst of total upheaval. 

My summer goal is to cook all the way through Shauna Niequist's book Bread and Wine. For two reasons:

1. I want to get better at cooking things besides fried rice.

2. I really, really like feeding people.

I'm gonna blog about it, too, in order to keep myself accountable. We'll call it something cute like, "Around the Table with Rach and Shauna" or "Recipes That I Just Barely Pulled Off".

And if you want to come over for dinner, just let me know. 

(This is not a joke, I am very serious. Holler at me and you can come over for dinner.)

Here's to chaos and curry and God's goodness and gathering around the table to celebrate all of it.