by JP Esq | Jun 6, 2016 | Uncategorized
“This book is about food in America, but it isn’t really about food, and it doesn’t start in America.”
I love food. I love looking at food. I love eating food. And yet, I realize that as much of the world has the opportunity to experience the luxury and the art of food, there are still many to whom it is simply nourishment to which they have little access.
Even still, somethingtofoodabout is a journey into the “performance art” of creating a symphony for the senses using a medium safe for human consumption. The book starts with a Foreword by Anthony Bourdain and “First Course” by Questlove which seems to provide a thoughtful glimpse into his creative genius.
The interviews with the ten chefs in this book are poignant and fascinating. And the book’s photography is simply stunning. This is the perfect coffee table book and will certainly make for great dinner party conversation. The interviews are best devoured in small bites over time, each time revealing a bit more inspiration, art, and curiosity.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to post a positive review.
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by JP Esq | May 27, 2016 | Uncategorized
James Van Patten‘s new release is the perfect companion for the acrylic painter, experienced and unexperienced. This is an excellent book to add to your library if you’re interested in learning more about painting with acrylics, but also if you need a refresher after working with the medium for a while.
Discussing everything from tools to techniques, Van Patten makes painting with acrylics accessible and approachable. The book gives healthy attention to the very basics like choosing paints and different types of brushes, to more advanced considerations like stretching your own canvas using unprimed canvas and stretcher bars. I particularly appreciated the treatment of color in this book and found it quite helpful for understanding how the effective use of color is the basis of any great painting. The Acrylic Painter is a book that I will rely on for years to come and it has certainly helped me in my own journey with acrylics (which happen to be my preferred painting medium).
I was provided with a complimentary copy of this book by the publisher in exchange for a review. I was not required to post a positive review. This post contains affiliate links.
by JP Esq | May 12, 2016 | Uncategorized
We’ve worked our way through Good Food Day for a while. It’s a visually stunning book, but sometimes the recipes were a bit overwhelming. Lots of ingredients and preparation time – which can be a bit of a lifestyle adjustment. I have several food allergies so there were many recipes that incorporated ingredients that I simply couldn’t use. That wasn’t anything new, however. My favorite recipe was the Roasted Fennel & Grapefruit salad. Reading the ingredients I was extremely skeptical, but the author makes good food approachable. The mix of roasted fennel, olives, spinach, and grapefruit was a colorful and exciting surprise. This book is on our shelf and in regular rotation.
This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to post a positive review.
by JP Esq | Jun 3, 2015 | Uncategorized
It’s still ticking in my Countdown app. 16 DAYS 5 HOURS 5 MINUTES and 33 SECONDS as of this minute. It was my freedom date. A date I dreamed about for years. A date I longed for to the point of exhaustion. And the entire time I felt God leading me in that direction. I avoided it because it made absolutely no sense anyway.
Leave my job and do what exactly? Ok, God . . . I will get right on that. These bills, though.
At some point, however, fighting the unknown became more exhausting and unsettling than surrendering into the wilderness into which I felt God beckoning me. And so I did. I quit my job with no plans other than to tend these seeds I planted, stretch out my arms into the world of self-employment, to travel and Just BE.
And then, God does something unexpected. He sent me directly back into the thing I was certain He bowed His head to my leaving. Don’t worry, I already repented of the look I flashed toward Heaven. Does not compute.
But, “His grace is an ocean and we’re all sinking.” And I am currently drowning in the absolutely crazy way He is showing His abundant grace in my life and this weird season that I’d prayed about for YEARS.
So I’m taking a summer off to be wild and free and then coming back to the place I loved to hate for a limited time only to help usher this place into a new way of working. Someone saw beyond my job description into the way I’m wired and the way I can be of service here and basically created new work for me to do.
This doesn’t change my plans with Handsome Lucy and I pray that God continues to breathe out ideas for me to plant. I am exceedingly grateful for the gift of respite and the opportunity to reset. I’ll come back in the fall and lay some new groundwork for this place, and then come January I will once again turn to the Father and say, “What Next, God…only can it be on a beach this time, please?”
What’s your story? How has God interrupted your life plans in a crazy way?
by JP Esq | Apr 13, 2015 | Uncategorized
Let’s not make this more profound than it needs to be.
Last week, after years of dying a slow agonizing death of trying to fit into the world’s idea of who I am, I made a decision.
In ten weeks, I will log off of that computer, swipe that badge, and walk out that door for the last time as a full-time slave employee. I keep waiting for the crashing weight of OMGEEWHATDIDIJUSTDO to take me over, but I’m currently drowning in an ocean of freedom.
I have struggled with who I am (because if you’ve met me you know I almost never fit in to any box, any frame of thinking, any way of doing). I was made weird and I’m choosing to embrace that my weird doesn’t fit typical daily operations of 95% of the country. I mean you get a job, you get benefits, you pay bills, you sleep, you eat, and then maybe you can retire on your non-existent social security when you’re too old to enjoy it.
The thought of this is a personal prison for me; has been for years. But still there was a fear that I was being disobedient to the way if I wanted something different. Because who am I really?
Just a girl. Knit together on purpose, for a purpose. By a creative God who thinks way bigger than the US Department of Labor.
Still I struggled. I wrestled this suffocating fear. But at some point, the fear of going was crushed by the terrifying paralysis of staying. Listen, if you poke around here enough you know I have an interesting relationship with God. But, I can’t say “God told me to leave my job…” I’d feel much better about myself if that’s how this went down.
But it isn’t.
And frankly, this is probably THE ACTUAL EXACT OPPOSITE thing that anyone would ever advise me to do. I fully admit I look as crazy as I sound.
And I probably don’t have enough money saved.
And I still have obligations (student loans, car, etc) that I have to pay.
And I have ideas, but I’m just a girl.
And I don’t have a husband.
And I don’t have a plan.
But I do have a Jesus.
…and health insurance because the
ACA won’t let me be great…
So let’s walk this crazy road where the only lamp I have is at my feet and I can’t see where I’m going and my bills have due dates and I have no current way to generate income to pay them.
This will get really interesting…really fast.
by JP Esq | Jan 21, 2015 | Uncategorized
Every time I see her she tells me how much she misses her husband.
He’s usually in the next room.
And she watches as over 60 years of memories slowly dissipate like a mist before her eyes. But, he hasn’t forgotten how much he loves her. And somehow the playful flirting that probably kept their marriage alive still makes its way to the surface.
Somewhere in those 83 year old eyes, I see that young 20-something who was so besotted by that handsome man a few years her senior. She’s still there. Still captivated. There’s no way you can be married for over 60 years and not have had your share of life hurricanes.
Yet through it all they remain. Laughing and joking and flirting and still so in love. Even as he slowly slips away.
I’m pretty certain it’s what we all want.
I’m pretty certain it’s what I found in her grandson.
“…I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine…” –Song of Solomon 6:3 (ESV)
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