The True Reason to Love food

I have been at school activities till 8 or 9 almost every night this week which led me to needing to buy fast food and eat on the run yet again. So as I pulled through the Wendy's drive-thru to hurry to my next competition/meeting it made me pause and reflect on how lonely picking up fast food really is. Then I began to smile as I remember my favorite times and most of them involve food but that isn't what made them my favorite times.

For those of you who don't know me well let me tell you. I LOVE entertaining. I love cooking a big meal and inviting people around. I love baking and cooking for a ton of people. I love the compliments for the food. But the biggest reason I love to cook for people is it brings us together and allows for the friendships to blossom and to get to know people really differently.

Most of the time I would cook all by myself and clean up after everyone would leave. Part of this was quite honestly I didn't trust people to prepare the food properly. I knew I could make the dishes well. But there was always one person I would let help me in the kitchen and he was one of the most fun people to cook with. I remember singing in the kitchen and just laughing the whole time we were cooking. It some of my fondest memories. I cannot tell you one incident that something hilarious was said because it wasn't like that. Instead it was the quiet comfort and security that I was with one of my best friends and I was happy. I wasn't stressed out but I was content that no matter what we were doing we were there for each other and we could make ANYTHING fun. And he always helped me clean up and would push me away if I tried to help, but I always got my way and we did it together.

I also remember that it was Brian's birthday and we had his apartment over and we just had so many laughs that day. The highlight was that we made Brian wear a princess crown. Then there was the day that Adam and a bunch of people came over for dinner. We just had so much fun that they stayed and talked for about 3-4 hours.

I would throw conference parties. After General Conference if people wanted a good meal they knew where to go and it was great because we would go over the topics and talk about as young people and then again we had a TON OF FUN!!!

If it wasn't a Conference dinner or a Breakfast dinner it could be a breakfast just because. I love to make crepes and just sit in our pajamas and have so much fun starting a day with really good friends.

Those dinners were the highlight of my social life. Parties are great but sometimes you don't get to know people any better you just have a lot of fun. Church activities are so many people that you move around to make sure you spend time with all the people. Whereas those dinners might have 12-20 people but that was still an intimate group compared to other activities and it led to conversations for hours. It was those dinners that friendships went deeper and I truly got to know people and they were ALWAYS a blast. We would laugh so much my stomach would hurt.

I miss eating with people and being surrounded by friends. I cannot wait till I get a place I feel comfortable inviting people over and once again doing my favorite hobby of cooking. I miss that interaction, the good food, but most of all the wonderful friendships that were built.