Life around the table {book review and recipe}

Think about all the time we spend sitting around a table. Dinner with family, drinks and appetizers with girlfriends, birthday celebrations complete with cake, engagement parties, showers, weddings, coffee talks to catch up with a long lost friend...Some of my favorite memories take place sitting around a table with someone I love.

Sitting around a table with good food is something we all enjoy, but sitting around the table is also about community and a fulfillment beyond just that of a full stomach. As human beings we crave food, but we also crave a deeper sense of community with one another and with God.

In Shauna Niequist's newest book,  Bread & Wine: A Love Letter to Life Around the Table with Recipes she shares the meaning of life around the table through short stories with lessons she's learned along the way. Most of her short stories are also followed by an amazing recipe. [See below for my favorite]

"When you eat, I want you to think of God, of the holiness of hands that feed us, of the provision we are given every time we eat...It's about the table, and about the other places we find ourselves eating. It's about a spirit or quality of living that rises up when we offer one another life itself, in the form of dinner or soup or breakfast, or bread and wine." (17)

I absolutely loved reading this book and savoring all the wisdom that Shauna shared. She encourages her readers to not be afraid to open up their homes and hearts to others. A fancy meal can be shared in an elegant dining room or on the floor on a picnic blanket, but the important thing is that the sharing happens. Shauna's writing style is detailed yet simple. She writes like she is talking to a friend. If you haven't read this book I highly recommend it along with her other books, Cold Tangerines and Bittersweet.

Here is a recipe taken from Shauna's book:

Breakfast Quinoa (serves 4)

Ingredients:
1 T. olive oil
1 large onion
4 links chicken apple sausage (Shauna recommends them from Trader Joe's)
2 cups quinoa
4 cups water
4 eggs
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:
Slice and soften onion in olive oil in a pan over medium-low heat. While that's cooking, slice the sausage and add it to the same pan.

Pour quinoa and water into small pot. Bring to boil and then turn the heat down to a simmer for 15 minutes. Fluff with fork and let cool 5 minutes.

Scoop quino into 4 bowls and then stir a scoop of onions and sausage slices into each one.

In the onion pan, fry the eggs to over easy, about 2 minutes over medium heat, and then slide one egg on top of the quinoa mixture in each bowl. (You can also choose to scramble the eggs if you choose)

*While I did receive this book for free from Book Sneeze, all opinions are always my own. :)