Remember the story of stone soup? A hungry traveler on his trek sees and picks up a nice round stone and puts it in his pocket. “You never know when such a thing will come in handy.” He comes across a village and thinks he can get a meal there. No one has enough food but each has a little something but not enough to share with the traveler. He starts to leave the village, puts his hand in his pocket and feels the stone. He gets a bright idea. He goes to the center of town and yells I have a magic stone and I can cook and make soup to share with everyone. He asks for a kettle. Fills it with water and adds his magic stone. He starts his cooking and stirring. Curious villagers come round and offer what they have. Salt and pepper from one, carrots, potatoes, etc. from others. When soup was finished it was enough for everyone. The otherwise distant villagers discover they can work together to get a great end result. Everyone shared in making the soup and they all ate and had a jolly time together. It created friendship and understanding.
Click here for link to "The Story of Stone Soup."
The moral of the story is to get people to help share when they didn’t have the inclination.
I recently had an outdoor party. This smaller group of 12 was part of a large group of about 80 people, that, 10 years ago, didn’t know each other but all had a passion for ballroom dance. This little party was a reunion of 12 special people who I ballroom danced with and saw at least once a week for a dance for during those years. As time went by snacks were eventually donated at each dance to share. Sometimes we had big event dances with a meal of contributions from fellow dancers. As the group got to know each other, contributions became more elaborate. Some of those foods got to be requested favorites at these meal/dances. Then Covid hit. It all ended.
This was our first time seeing everyone in about 16 months. The gathering was a picnic held at my house since I had a large covered outside patio. We were all vaccinated so we decided to have an in person lunch. Dancers requested old favorite signature dishes that they remembered from those meal/dance events; those foods that reminded us of our great times together as a dance family! It, therefore, reminded me of the stone soup story. In the being, no one knew each other and no one talked to each other. As time went by we evolved into a dance family.
For our reunion, I provided the patio and coffee. Everyone else brought something to eat. We had George’s favorite lasagna, a Dawn’s favorite macaroni, Fred’s Moroccan bean salad, Graces baked Portobello mushrooms, Marylynn’s baked beans, Al’s pineapple upside down cake just to mention a few dishes! The end result was “stone soup” in the form of a perfect picnic with friends where everyone had a part to contribute.
Besides being dancers, we learned we were all foodies too! We all enjoyed it so much that it will be our new tradition. A collection of all the requested recipes with some pictures to go with them created thru RootsinRecipes.com will make a perfect memory book and gift of these good times!!
Do you take time to record your favorite times thru recipes?
FOOD+FAMILY (+FRIENDS)=LOVE
RootsinRecipes.com provides the vehicle to record the recipes, the photos, and the stories by combining them into your family (& friend) history thru recipes, your family recipe cookbook.
Start capturing you family stories thru your family recipes today! Click here to create an account.
Photos from - https://www.pinterest.com/pin/415175659391563246/