Biking to End Hunger - A Lutheran Approach

Across the nation, 22 ELCA Lutheran Synods (geographic grouping of churches) will gather for their annual synod assemblies.  It's a great time to meet new people, learn about new opportunities and make decisions about the future of the church. 

While searching my twitter feed for others reporting about their treks to synod assembly, I ran across tweets from Earl Janssen.  After some quick googling, I learned that Earl is the pastor of Our Shepherd Lutheran Church in Severna Park, MD and chose to ride his bike the 117 miles to the Delaware-Maryland Synod Assembly to raises fund for the ELCA World Hunger Appeal. In a word Pastor Earl, this is awesome!

Each congregation was encouraged to donate $1 per worshipper to help, with the goal of about $25,000.  Talk about strength in numbers! Imagine what could happen if every ELCA Synod meeting this weekend did that? What if we all gave $5 or $10? The World Bank estimates that 1.2 billion people globally live on less than $1.25 dollars a day.  Although this number may seem overwhelming, it's people like Pastor Earl and the DE-MD Synod that prove a little organization can go a long way.  Isn't that what Christ would have us do anyway?

So how can you help? Organize a giving campaign to ELCA World Hunger, other great hunger advocacy organizations like Bread for the World, or to your local food bank.  Christ is counting on us to make a difference. Will you answer his call?

"Speak out for those who cannot speak, for the rights of all the destitute. Speak out, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy." (Proverbs 31:8-9)

For the Love of Macaroni and Cheese

While I have no official credentials other than liking to eat, I've made it my personal quest in the past few months to discover the best macaroni and cheese in Atlanta. Gourmet versions of the sustenance of American college students have been cropping up on the menus all over town.  I'm not exactly sure what's causing this trend, but I'm not complaining. As a lover of all things pasta and cheese, this truly seems like a match made in heaven.

At present the title goes, without a doubt to HobNob.

HobNob is cozy gastro-pub near Ansley Mall.  Their menu features excellent versions of pub favorites and unpretentious suggested beer pairings.  The macaroni and cheese comes straight from the oven to your table in it's very own cast iron skillet.  The creamy molten three-cheese sauce covers traditional elbow pasta and is topped with crumbles of truffled bread and butter crust.  Every time I've ordered it, my table-mates and onlookers nearby have been jealous.  The portion is generous and can easily be shared.  The best part? Their menu pairs this with New Belgium's Fat Tire Amber Ale, which happens to also be my favorite beer. It's a culinary experience not to be missed.

A very close second is The Porter Beer Bar

Situated in the heart of Little 5 Points, the Porter gives you that local English pub feeling.  Like HobNob, their entire menu features unique twists on old pub favorites.  They also have about 30 beers on tap that will broaden the horizon of some of the biggest beer snobs. Their mac and cheese combines bechemel, asiago and cheddar into a cheese sauce you'll want to savor. The portion is not quite as big as HobNob's but it's definitely filled me up for dinner before. I deduct just a few point because the sauce begins to clump as you get toward the end of the dish. Perhaps if I ate more quickly this wouldn't happen, but this stuff is just to good to rush. If you're arteries aren't too clogged from all the cheese, I also recommend the Reuben. It might just change your life.

Don't write home to mom about:

Mary Mac's Tea Room - This iconic Atlanta restaurant should be visited a least once in a lifetime, but I'm not impressed with the mac and cheese. There was a lot of hype going in and I don't see what all the fuss was about. This mac is the clumpy casserole type and I'm just not a fan. They use solely cheddar, which also makes it a bit greasy.  No disrespect to Mary Mac's though. The fried chicken gets two thumbs up.

Kaleidoscope - Style points are awarded to this new Brookhaven establishment for use of the corkscrew pasta.  Marks for texture get an A+, but there wasn't enough sauce to go around. Next time I'll just stick with my mashed potatoes.  The rest of my dinner was great though. If you haven't visited the new strip off of Dresden, you're missing out.

DBA Barbecue - As one my favorite places in Virgina Highlands, it pains me to report that DBA needs some help in the mac and cheese department.  The rest of their menu is great, featuring excellent suggestions for barbecue pork and chicken. They even have sweet potato tots! This place is great for a group and often features great drink specials.

This is a small report on a much larger sample size. If you feel that I've missed out on the best of what Atlanta has to offer, let me know and I'll check it out.

An Open Letter to Groupon

Dear Groupon,

Please stop tempting me to buy things that I do not really need.  I appreciate that through the power of collective buying a helicopter tour of my fair city comes to me at the low, low price of $150, but I do not need to get around town this way.  Who does that?  I understand that I am saving money by purchasing a $10 coupon that is really worth $25 at my favorite restaurant, but am I really saving money? It sounds like you've tricked me once again into eating another dinner out when I have a fridge full on wonderful food. Your deceptive marketing tempts me away from my resolve of financial responsibility.  Dave Ramsey would not approve. Therefore, my one-time good friend, I'm putting you on a short leash.  Please rest assured that the next time I have money in my budget for a month of unlimited hot yoga classes or professional teeth whitening, you'll be the first one I call. I promise that it's not you, it's me.

Love,

Kate

Brought to you by the letter R

Resolutions - it's how many Americans start each new year.  They represent a promise to ourselves to "do better."  The skeptics out there may say that they are worthless or unrealistic, but I look at them as an opportunity for self-evaluation and growth. Call me idealistic. I don't care. They work for me.

In 2010, I had a few ideas on resolutions, but what surfaced as my primary goal became to: "Drop habits that no longer suit me." Wow. Easier said than done. Breaking a habit is really hard.  Recognizing that you may have outgrown things in your life that once were a positive influence can be even harder and sometimes very painful.  This resolution kept manifesting itself in ways I never expected.  I shed people, commitments and organizations all of which at one time were really important to me.  But what emerged from this process is a leaner, trimmer me that can focus on new found goals and aspirations.  It's a process that will continue through my life.  I'm very thankful to those that had patience with me and helped give me a push when I had a difficult time letting go.

So here we are in 2011, ready for another new year.  I have some goals in mind for books I need to read.  (Let's face it, my 2010 goal in that area was an epic fail.)  This time last year I was a non-runner and now have registered for a half-marathon. And I've decided to really focus on my relationships with those folks I value most. Completely by accident I focused on goals for the mind, body and spirit in the form of "Reading, Running and Relationships." I guess 2011 gets to be brought to you by the letter "R." I'm excited at what this year has in store for me.  If it's any bit as growth-filled as 2010, I'm very blessed.  Now time to get back to living it.

The Season of Excitement!

Hello blog-land. So sorry for my disappearance. I think you might make my list of 2011 new year's resolutions. I'm still in a period of discernment about my goals for 2011, but I'll keep you posted (pardon the pun.)  To get us started, let's talk about things that I'm excited about...

Today's subject - Advent

Advent is the time in the church year when we prepare for the coming of Christ.  It's period of excited anticipation for what is yet to come. It starts about four weeks before Christmas and for 2010, officially started last Sunday. Yay!

Have you ever been so excited about something that you counted down the days until it got here?  As a teenager, I attended a church camp every summer called AFFIRM that was the highlight of my year.  My friend Jennifer and I were so excited about this camp each year, that we began counting down the days sometimes 200 days in advance.  We'd pass each other notes in between classes with top reasons why we were excited.  When one of us had a bad day, it often became a tactic to look a the bright-side: "Sorry you didn't do so well on that test, but hey, it's on 137 days until AFFIRM. :)"

Many people mark the anticipation of Christmas in the same way with an Advent calendar.  Advent calendars come in all shapes and sizes.  I have one that is a small Christmas tree that I add an ornament to each day.  Some are pictures that have doors with a piece of candy behind each of them.  I even downloaded an Advent calendar app for my IPhone this past weekend. Further proof that there is truly an app for everything.  What ever your preferred method to mark the season, keep in mind it's the spirit of Advent that remains the most key. It's a season to remind us that the best is yet to come! It's a celebration of both Christ's birth and the anticipation of Christ coming again. My hope for myself, as well as for all of you, is that we can clear the obstacles out of our lives to focus on what is really important this season. 24 more days!

Life is short... (fill in the blank)

A few weeks ago, I came across the following words on my morning run.  At first it made me laugh, then I started thinking of all the other ways I could finish the phrase "Life is short..." Below is a few of the ones that came to mind for me. How would you finish the phrase?

Life is short...
...eat more great food!
...tell people you love them
...skip the drama
...smile
...turn off the TV

Book it! - the 2010 edition

Too late to start a New Year's Resolution? Nah. In the words of the immortal Michael Jackson: "If you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and make the change." With regard to resolutions, the only thing that makes January 1 special is that you probably had time over the holidays to think about where you are and where you want to be with your life. When you're unemployed, you get to think about this on a daily basis. So I'm taking advantage of my copious free time to pay attention to a few things that often get neglected when I'm off running the rat race. The subject of today's post...Book it! 2010 Edition.

You remember Book it!, the perfect pairing of capitalism and summer reading.  Students were encouraged to read a bunch of books and were with personal pan pizzas from Pizza Hunt and Land Before Time rubber hand puppets.  Taking a page from Margaret Feinberg I've decided to challenge myself to a bit of reading in the coming 12 months. The goal is to read 50 books from May 1, 2010 to May 1, 2011. I'll report to you guys on my progress and review books from time to time. I'll be focusing on a few goals/rules within this one:

2.1 - Read Book Club Books:  I don't think it's fair to let my personal goal get in the way of my commitment to these ladies. So around 12 books (25%) will be allotted to these choices.  If I've already read a selection that's chosen, it will not count toward the overall total.

2.2 - Finish What You've Started: I'm also giving priority to finishing series that I've started namely, Harry Potter (I know, I know!), Twilight, and the Inheritance Cycle (Eragon, etc). It skews the numbers a little higher toward fantasy that I'd prefer, but it's still around 25%.  I've also debated whether or not re-reading a book as part of the series should count and I've concluded that as long as it's read during the time period allotted it does. My challenge, my rules.

2.3 - Read Books Related to Christian Spirituality -  The biggest category of "good intentions" books on my shelves are those that relate to God, Christianity and faith. While I don't have all 25% of this category picked just yet, some of the ones on the list are: Blue Like Jazz and A Million Miles in a Thousand Years - Donald Miller; The Cost of Discipleship - Dietrich Bonhoeffer; Organic God, Sacred Echo and Scouting the Divine - Margaret Feinberg; and The Shack - William Young.

2.4 - Read Books Related to Health, Development, Economics and Politics - There are a ton of books that relate to my field that will help keep me up to speed with the latest happening and will challenge my brain. This list is still being developed, but it will account for the other 25%.

I reserve the right to change my mind on the exact weights of the categories.  I want to stay well rounded as well as actually read a bunch of those books I've been meaning too forever.  If you have suggestions, I welcome them. I have a feeling this book challenge isn't going to stop in 2011. Progress updates coming soon!