Chicken Soup for the Soul by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, and Amy Newmark

For this review, we received Food and Love (101 Stories celebrating Special Times with Family and Friends…and Recipes too!) This book is filled with wonderful and heartwarming stories about family and friends and the special way meals help us bond even during the darkest of times. Not only are these stories short and easy to read, but they also include many tempting recipes. For example, there’s a great recipe for Cream Cheese Chicken that I just can’t wait to try. How about Beef Dinner in a Pumpkin! That’s right IN A PUMPKIN! I can just imagine the facial expressions I’ll get when I serve that meal.

Growing up, I can remember many family events where we never left the kitchen…either we were the ones preparing the meal, helping the person/people who were preparing the meal, keeping the cook(s) company, or standing around snacking and waiting for the big event. No matter what event we were celebrating, there was usually food not far away. The stories in this book, confirm that my childhood was much the same as many other families.

You will read funny stories that catch you off guard when you hear your own laughter, touching stories that cause you to be silent while you reminisce about days gone by, stories that hit your inner core so much that they cause you to run for a Kleenex before the pages are wet with tears.

I can see myself starting some new family traditions with recipes I found in this book and I can also see myself digging thru my kitchen drawer that’s full of crumpled up sheets of paper/napkins/whatever else was handy to look for some of the recipes that I’ve been given by family members and friends who are no longer with me. I know that their love and their spirit will be right there in the kitchen with me while I prepare the meal/dish that meant so much to them.

Laurie

Hello, my name is Laurie. My family and I live near the Oregon coast. When we aren’t at work, in school, or on the volleyball court, we enjoy traveling, cheering for our favorite sports teams, playing outdoors, and checking off items on our bucket list. We are lucky in that both sets of our parents, as well as our siblings and their families, live within an hour of us. We get together often to help one another out, celebrate milestones, and go on adventures together.

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