Honouring a Friend

We recently attended a celebration of life for a friend who passed away much too soon. Mike was an avid cook and owned over 500 cookbooks. In memory of him, his family shared some of his many cookbooks with the friends and family he left behind.

And so, dinner is served in honour of Mike. Using a recipe for Lentil, Bacon and Beer Chili from one of Mike's cookbooks, we cooked up a storm of deliciousness, only deviating form the recipe to add homegrown zucchini, extra bacon, and a whole lot of love.

Mike was here with us in spirit as we gave a nod to his memory before diving in to our dishes of hearty and delicious chili. Reflecting on how busy I am with work, the kids, and the farm, dinner sometimes falls by the wayside even though, like Mike did, I get such joy out of cooking with ingredients we made or grew ourselves. This is my nudge to take time to be in the kitchen cooking and baking the things I love and trying out new recipes to find more favourites. Life is too short for frozen fish sticks, just saying.

There will be more recipes from Mike's cookbooks gifted to our family over the coming months and years. And we will mention and tag him when they are because it helps to know that others are thinking of him too.