Staying connected with friends via home cooked meals and new recipe for the week

Couple weeks ago I learned how to make lemon caper chicken, and I practiced a couple of times before inviting my guest over... I wanted to show off my amazing cooking skill.  Somehow though the food always turned out better when I have no audience to impress.  I invited my neighbor that got assigned to do community volunteering work with me, and after our project was over we wanted to celebrate with some champagne and food, also to compensate for the fact that she lived directly across the street from me and we somehow never met before.  I can be a bit closed up and go on for months without inviting any friends over to my home so this year I wanted to change that.

It was really amazing that we talked so much about our lives like long lost friends, she talked about her husband passing a few years ago and me shared my experience with my divorce and changing career path, funny dating stories, and just had the most fun time.  We drank a whole bottle of champagne and a bottle of red wine and was still looking in the fridge to see if we could dig up some more alcohol.  Something about sharing a home cooked meal just brings people so much closer together.

Right after I switched office, my best friend prepared some delicious appetizers and invited a couple girls and between the three of us and her pup Luna, we had a girls' night at her house.  I appreciate it so much when someone goes through the trouble to prepare food and also put in the thought for a beautiful table setting... it made me feel really special.  When you don't work together with your friends anymore, it's still important to be intentional about staying connected.  We just need to be better at setting aside some time every week to stay in touch!

Next week is my turn to invite friends over so I'm searching for some interesting recipes to try out.  This eggplant recipe looks delicious and chickpea isn't a typical ingredient that I use when I'm cooking, so I'm super looking forward to test it out.  

I think our lives are as beautiful and amazing as our imagination takes us.  Sometimes when I'm sad and heart broken I tend to forget that, but when I'm cooking it reminds me of my ability to bring love and warmth to others as well as myself, and that's a beautiful feeling to revel in.