I have failed to take pictures of what I'm making lately, but I have had the opportunity to cook again. Kroger had a great coupon offer through August ($10 when you spend $40+) and I took full advantage of buying additional meat and canned non-perishables to use them wisely.
I cooked for my Life Group last Thursday. At the beginning of the year, we all agreed to cook healthy for one another. I was stumped about what to make, because pasta was the easy choice for a group of 12. What else can you cook for such a large group? It still being summer, I decided to make chicken and vegetable kabobs and brown rice (the healthy kind). I don't have a grill, but baked the kabobs for 20 minutes at 425 and they were a hit. I marinated the chicken in Lowry's mesquite marinade prior to cooking, which gave only a subtle flavor to the chicken once cooked. I added 3 small pieces of chicken, onions, cherry tomatoes, yellow and green squash, and green pepper pieces to each skewer. I made 2 skewers per person, and there was plenty to go around since some of the group didn't show. I would definitely try this again, although it was a somewhat time consuming process. This was also my first success with rice!!
I also made a potato, onion and sausage goulash last week. The recipe can be found
here. It wasn't as flavorful as I might have liked, but that is probably due to something I did while cooking rather than the fault of the recipe itself. This makes the list of maybes to try again.
I wanted to read this book to get a different perspective. I appreciate that Jacobs took a reverent approach to studying the laws of the Bible and attempting to live them out in our modern society. His thoughts and research helped me think about my faith in new ways. I was disappointed that he gave much of it up at the end of the year. As a writer, I was also disappointed that he took everything literally, rather than using his knowledge of the different types of writing to actually understand the Bible. The most helpful books I have read on biblical interpretation focus on ensuring we understand the bible as those hearing it would have understood it, taking into account aspects of prophetic, poetic, narrative, and apocalyptic literature. It is also important to understand the Bible as a whole and how all the parts fit together. Jacobs' focus on individual passages does not do justice to the big picture. He also largely glossed over Jesus and the New Testament. I felt there were some assumptions made about the knowledge of the reader on the topic and there were definitely barriers for him as someone coming from a Jewish background. He did not allow himself to fully embrace the Bible in its entirety. Still, this was an enlightening read for me on a topic close to my heart (the Bible).
Most recently, I have finished reading The Art of Possibility by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander. She is a psychologist and he is a conductor for the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra. The book is published by Harvard Business School Press and is designed to help anyone, but especially leaders, to think in new ways. The book is segmented into chapters, called practices:
