Love Notes: Sugar and Spice

{small ways to celebrate great love}

Remember when I introduced you to Grace Before Meals (link) a few months ago?  Fr. Leo Patalinghug is wise, funny, challenging, and an amazing chef to boot.  His EWTN show and his first cookbook are all about letting the Holy Spirit flood your family with its gifts through cooking, eating, and talking together.  

While the Grace Before Meals cookbook emphasized family dinners, I was lucky enough to receive Fr. Leo's new book for couples, Spicing Up Married Life, as a Christmas gift!  This 12-meal collection doesn't just contain recipes; each chapter is like a mini homily on things like love at first sight (does it exist?), contraception, education options for your future or existing kids, and dealing with tragedies together, paired with prayers and questions for the two of you, whether you're dating, engaged, or in your golden years, to have an informal discussion.

Best of all, Fr. Leo suggests you use the 12 meals (there's a main dish, side, and dessert for every chapter) book to celebrate 12 monthly anniversaries!  A dash of spiritual reading, solid conversation, the sweetness of cooking together, and a cozy night in...can you think of a better date night?  Obviously, I just got this book, so I haven't read it all yet, and it's only January, the first of twelve months to come, so I can't personally attest to the greatness of all this, but judging by Fr. Leo's preaching (he often did the nightly Masses at my college) and our love of cooking , I think this will be a wonderful year-long project, indeed.

Of course, I hope reading this gets you excited enough to want your own copy of Spicing Up Married Life, but even if you don't have it, you can still start this little tradition!  Set aside the night of your first date, engagement, or wedding each month to choose a meal, make it together, and dive into the spiritual book of your choice.  I think it'd be a great way to break down a more intimidating text (Love and Responsibility, anyone?) over the course of the year, and to genuinely celebrate love.

What do you think?  Share your favorite meal for two!