Year in Review

This week we said goodbye to Christmas with a lutfisk lunch at the First Lutheran Church in Columbia Heights where volunteers hustle up to 250 diners during each of their three two-hour services. Highlights: the fish was mellow and flaky, the lefse basket was endless, the rutabaga mash was buttery (rutabaga is an under-appreciated vegetable and I am always glad to see it served), and my dining companions were funny and smart. A great event and I am already marking my calendar for next year's feast.

While visions of sugarplums are dancing out of my head, that means it is time for Birthdays! Both T and I celebrate our birthdays this week. While he is a little more low key about his day, I believe in making the entire month a glass full of revelry (with a debauchery chaser). 

Last year I borrowed a page from Sue Heck's bedazzled scrapbooks and declared this past year "Year of Patrice." I opened myself up to opportunities and relationships, and amazing things happened:

Ingebretsen's hired me to represent them at the Food and Wine Event

The StarTribune published a few of my words including this piece on barley

My awesome friend Catherine Dehdashti published her first novel and asked me to be a reader AND a reviewer

My cooking classes at the American Swedish Institute continued to draw students

Our daughter married a man we adore almost as much as we adore her

My Ginger Pinchies won a Blue Ribbon at the Minnesota State Fair

The good people of Minot, North Dakota hired me to work at Nørsk Hostfest (a once in a lifetime experience)

I was asked to contribute a dinner party to my friend's Blue House orphanage benefit

My mother-in-law gifted me with her family's heirloom lefse roller

As Year of Patrice churns to an end, I am astounded at what a whirlwind crazy amazing happy year it has been. Opening yourself up to the Universe and all it has to offer can jump start a whole new journey of challenges and bounty. Self-indulgent? Yes. But I feel that I am finally starting to pull the weeds up from the path I am supposed to be walking.

Probably the most terrifying and satisfying event of the year was that I sold a book pitch. I'll provide details when I am able, but I can offer this much: the next 12 months will be "Year of Jul."

Meanwhile T and I are eating our way through the Twin Cities and dedicating ourselves toward finding the meal that best exclaims, "It's our Birthdays! Is there any better reason to celebrate?" And anyone who knows me well understands that my Birthday means a day of donuts and Cheetos. So many donuts, so few birthdays.