November 9, 2018
I've just finished putting my green chair back inside my apartment, I've turned the kitchen lights off and it's the end of another wonderful Friday night Pasta Night.
Pasta Night is when the other RAW expats gather together in my kitchen, cook a simple dinner and hang out. It was born when I first got here out of a desire to carry on a family tradition of sharing the Friday dinner together and starting the Sabbath (Saturday, the day I go to church) off right. After a long busy week it's nice to slow down, cook a meal with friends and chat about life.
It is an always evolving party. At one point when Re-Knee was here we had to make sure we didn't cook with A LOT of different foods that she was allergic to (tomatoes, garlic, gluten, etc) it was a fun challenge and we were all in support of it. That was how we ended up branching away from always cooking actual pasta. Since then we've experimented with recipes, making everything from roasted capsicum (bell peppers) pasta sauce, smashed avo on toast and spiral pasta (carrots and wax melon spriralized into a 'pasta' type thing, which I think may be my favorite).
It's consisted of just two of us cooking and hanging out. It's been Tesser and Re-Knee laughing and talking about memes and me enjoying their laughter and just listening to their craziness. It's even been a small crowd of almost 10 of us cooking up a storm all doing different parts that contribute to the dinner.
Tonight Karen, Sarah and Alanah came over and we cooked fajitas. I made sweet potato tortillas from scratch, Alanah was a wiz at cutting up the veggies and we used my next to last packet of taco seasoning on them. Sarah splurged on some sour creme and a jar of local salsa and Karen was the supervisor, making sure we picked up the onion slices that kept escaping. We chatted as we cooked talking about everything and nothing at the same time. We simply were present. When everything was just about finished the fireworks started over at the river front by the Royal Palace. They were in celebration of Cambodia's Independence Day! We finished up all the cooking, made our tasty fajitas and ate while enjoying the fireworks from my apartment balcony. It was almost like Cinco de Mayo, ha! We sat and ate and ate and ate until all the tortillas were gone, our stomachs full and the fire works were over. There is never an agenda with Pasta Night, it's simple, we cook, we chat, we hang out.
I've enjoyed getting to know my friends better this way the last few years. There is something special about preparing food together. Your hands are busy and you have things to look at but you can talk and connect with people or listen and hear their stories. Then there is something even more beautiful about sharing a meal with someone. Food connects us to memories, stories and people we love, so we share those moments with each other through out the evening.
Tonight after the food and fireworks, we made our way inside and sat in the living room, in the glow of the Christmas tree, around the fireplace while enjoying the crackle of the beautiful YouTube fire. We pondered the psychological effects of the crackle sound of the fire causing your brain to think it was real and that you would trick yourself into feeling the heat. We had the crackle and two fans going, the heat may have just been genuine heat from living 10 degrees north of the equator. . .
We'll have about 1 more Pasta Night this year. We'll get busy with teams and then Christmas but when we do get together next we'll pick up right where we've left off.
I am so very grateful for Pasta Night and the family it brings.
I pray that we all will always be able to share a Pasta Night with the ones we love.
Pasta Night is when the other RAW expats gather together in my kitchen, cook a simple dinner and hang out. It was born when I first got here out of a desire to carry on a family tradition of sharing the Friday dinner together and starting the Sabbath (Saturday, the day I go to church) off right. After a long busy week it's nice to slow down, cook a meal with friends and chat about life.
It is an always evolving party. At one point when Re-Knee was here we had to make sure we didn't cook with A LOT of different foods that she was allergic to (tomatoes, garlic, gluten, etc) it was a fun challenge and we were all in support of it. That was how we ended up branching away from always cooking actual pasta. Since then we've experimented with recipes, making everything from roasted capsicum (bell peppers) pasta sauce, smashed avo on toast and spiral pasta (carrots and wax melon spriralized into a 'pasta' type thing, which I think may be my favorite).
It's consisted of just two of us cooking and hanging out. It's been Tesser and Re-Knee laughing and talking about memes and me enjoying their laughter and just listening to their craziness. It's even been a small crowd of almost 10 of us cooking up a storm all doing different parts that contribute to the dinner.
Tonight Karen, Sarah and Alanah came over and we cooked fajitas. I made sweet potato tortillas from scratch, Alanah was a wiz at cutting up the veggies and we used my next to last packet of taco seasoning on them. Sarah splurged on some sour creme and a jar of local salsa and Karen was the supervisor, making sure we picked up the onion slices that kept escaping. We chatted as we cooked talking about everything and nothing at the same time. We simply were present. When everything was just about finished the fireworks started over at the river front by the Royal Palace. They were in celebration of Cambodia's Independence Day! We finished up all the cooking, made our tasty fajitas and ate while enjoying the fireworks from my apartment balcony. It was almost like Cinco de Mayo, ha! We sat and ate and ate and ate until all the tortillas were gone, our stomachs full and the fire works were over. There is never an agenda with Pasta Night, it's simple, we cook, we chat, we hang out.
I've enjoyed getting to know my friends better this way the last few years. There is something special about preparing food together. Your hands are busy and you have things to look at but you can talk and connect with people or listen and hear their stories. Then there is something even more beautiful about sharing a meal with someone. Food connects us to memories, stories and people we love, so we share those moments with each other through out the evening.
Tonight after the food and fireworks, we made our way inside and sat in the living room, in the glow of the Christmas tree, around the fireplace while enjoying the crackle of the beautiful YouTube fire. We pondered the psychological effects of the crackle sound of the fire causing your brain to think it was real and that you would trick yourself into feeling the heat. We had the crackle and two fans going, the heat may have just been genuine heat from living 10 degrees north of the equator. . .
We'll have about 1 more Pasta Night this year. We'll get busy with teams and then Christmas but when we do get together next we'll pick up right where we've left off.
I am so very grateful for Pasta Night and the family it brings.
I pray that we all will always be able to share a Pasta Night with the ones we love.
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