Winter Recipes

I purposely do not make resolutions for January. However, I tend to sort and launch new projects. I just finishing sorting out my recipe collection. Stacks of clippings and cards perched in an unbalanced pile atop my recipe box. During the year, I print recipes from food sites on the Internet and clip recipes from newspapers and magazines. Months later I can change my mind about the amount of work involved in a recipe or if it even sounds tasty. I also re-discover gems that I intended to make long ago.

Occasionally I have guests or during the holidays I welcome culinary guinea pigs to my table. (I know, it’s not recommended to try out the unknown on people with whom you wish to remain friends). Most the time, it works out well. I enjoy envisioning the finished product and the satisfaction of my loved ones. I also like to use my own little tweaks on some dishes — an added ingredient, spice or condiment. Just to make it my own. Often I find a dish that I will save for another event. However, sometimes I bomb — like one of my way-over-the-top-too-salty dishes this past Christmas. The clinkers keep me humble.

Winter seems to bring out the manic creative planner in me. I guess I just don’t get motivated when the weather is hot. Perhaps I feel a push to get going in the three months we have to call “cooler” weather where I live. I am launching some business projects and attacking another item on my “bucket list.” So I am wading into three or four projects and starting to feel a bit uncertain.

I am anxious to try out some ideas that I have been incubating for a few years. So I am creating some new recipes and wonder if anyone will like my “dishes.” The results are unknown and a bit scary. I am reminded of several verses from Psalm 127: “Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain…In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat–for he grants sleep to those he loves,” (verses 1, 2, NIV).

I don’t want to lose sight of why I do or try anything that I believe will help others or be enjoyable. God has blessed me with strength, education, and networks with other people who share some of my values. Those are invigorating opportunities to blend and explore. Even if they don’t turn out to be the winners of the Pillsbury Bake Off or the Great American Novel.

Questions for personal journaling or group discussion:

1. What are a few items on your “bucket list,” or things you want to do or try during this lifetime? Have you added any new ones this year?

2. How do you see the difference between an opportunity and a failure?

Karen Spruill writes from Orlando, Florida.

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