{In The City} Sofra

A friend of mine invited me to go with her to one of her favorite places, and I gladly accepted. Little did I know that it would become one of my favorite places I've been in this city so far.

First of all, I LOVE middle eastern food, especially Lebanese food,One of my absolute faves so, this place was right up my alley. The name of the place is Sofra. They serve Middle Eastern and Eastern Mediterranean food. One word....YUM.

I had some choices from the Meze bar. Meze is basically a selection of small dishes, or appetizers that they serve in the Middle East or Mediterranean for lunch, or dinner and in some regions, Meze is served at the beginning of a large meal. Many of them are dips.

A bonus for me was that all but 2 of the selections were free of gluten.

Here's what I chose...
From left to right: Smoky Eggplant with pine nuts, Whipped feta with red peppers, Parsnip Skordalia with toasted almonds, Moroccan Carrot Salad, and Beet Tzatziki. (*my favorite)

Instead of the usual flatbread that is served on the side, I had cucumbers and a type of radish. I'm not sure what they were called but, they were milder than your typical red radish.

Sofra also has a great selection of stuffed flat bread sandwiches, and delicious baked goods such as their chocolate hazelnut baklava, macaroons, and many more.

I also had a red rooibos latte, sweetened with honey, also very delicious. The place is tiny, and you are very close to your other dining neighbors and you may even meet someone new. We met the man sitting next to us who was from Lebanon.

So...if you live in the area be sure to check this place out. It's great to meet with friends or on a date. I can't wait to take my husband!

Where's your favorite place to eat, have coffee, or just hang out?

Our Sundays...

*Last September we moved to New England to start a church. Here's our Sundays in a nutshell...

Here's a little sneek peek into our Sunday Mornings.

I try to get up at 6am but, I don't always make it. Mornings and I don't always get along.

I crawl out of bed, say morning to the fam, and try to get in the shower by 7 at the very latest. Then, I get the kids dressed and ready, make sure my daughter's crazy hair is combed and somewhat styled, and then get myself ready.

Kent usually helps by getting the kiddos breakfast (he's pretty much amazing), I grab some coffee and maybe a bite to eat but, not usually (unless my hubby makes me) :) Then, we are out the door by 8am.

This is our car...

The trailer attached is our portable church. Everything we need to set up church is in this trailer. Except for the most important part...the people. My husband is a champ at backing this thing into our very narrow driveway. Above you can see one side and below you can see the other side to get a picture of how narrow it really is.When we first started out, it took Kent several tries to get it backed in just right, now it's usually just one, sometimes 2. He used to have me get out of the car and tell him when there were no cars coming so he could try and back it in. We live on a busy street.

So, we arrive to our destination in about 3 minutes. From about 8:15-10:15 we are setting up. We set up chairs, sound system, children's area, coffee area, stage area with instruments, speakers, etc.. We have some amazing people that get there early every week to help us. We could NOT do this without them. Seriously. They are amazing.

We start our service (we call it a gathering) around 10:30, and end around 12ish depending on how early we got started. :)

We have to be out of the building by around 1 so, after we chat and have a little more coffee, we clean up, pack the trailer back up and head home. We also have amazing people helping us tear down, some of them the same as the set up. So thankful for them.

We usually get home anywhere between 1:15-1:30 and we are pretty much beat. After that, we eat some lunch and then chill.

Sunday nights we usually low key. We just hang out and watch America's Funniest Home Videos, have popcorn, and just be together.

So, that's a very condensed version of how we do our Sundays. But, Sundays to us are just a part of what we do...

More to come in another post.

{Wordless Wednesday} In My Neighborhood...

Who says?

Who says you can't have a bonfire in the city?

Working hard to toast the mallows...

lessons from an expert marshmallow roaster...

enjoying the fruits of their labor...

YUM!*

*I attempted making gluten-free graham crackers and they turned out pretty good. We all ate them!

Here's the recipe if you're interested.

I'm back with some late night randomness...

I miss blogging. I used to blog a lot, and I really liked it. I've been looking through some of my older blog posts and thinking of how many memories and special moments I've captured on here. It really is very special, like a virtual scrapbook. It's obviously been a long time since I've blogged regularly, and I'm a little sad about it actually. My life is a bit different now than it used to be. Not better or worse, just different. But, thinking back on all of the wonderful moments that I have captured here, it seems a shame to stop now. There are so many more moments to freeze in time. So, I am saying all of that to say, I want to be a regular blogger again. I want to have weekly recipe posts and fun pictures of the kids, and polls, and all of the other fun stuff I used to do. I feel like I need it. Funny, but true. If there are still any readers out there, I know there is at least one of you; please continue reading because I don't plan on going anywhere. :)

So...City living. I have spent most of my life in small towns but, always dreaming of what it would be like to live in a big city. In my early twenties I would think about city life and being where all of the action is but, thought I could never raise a family in the city, it just wouldn't be practical. I enjoyed visits to New York City but, enjoyed my small town life, where everybody knows your name....and they're always glad you came. (sorry, I had to throw that one in there.) I think people who grew up in the city must have daydreams of living in the country. The peace, quiet...and cows. Now, I am living proof that you can have a family and live in the city. Easy? Not always. Fun? Yes. Backyard? No. My son said the other day, I miss our yard but, I really like going to the playground. The playground and every other park in the city is our backyard, and there are some great ones. To be honest, I have no complaints. This is where The Lord has called us, and he is moving greatly here. I will say that it does get a bit lonely at times being away from family and friends. Attempting to form new relationships is not easy, but I know in time it will happen. One of my favorite things about the city is the diversity and every imaginable culture at your fingertips, it's really amazing. There are hundreds of ethnic restaurants right up the street from us, and we live across the street from a building where bands play at all hours of the night, could it get any better than that? Just kidding. The bands aren't that bad. :)

Anyway, city life is great and there are 1000's of people here that need to know God and his tremendous love for them and I'm so excited that he chose us to carry His light to this city.

Hey, I have an idea! If anyone is interested in asking any questions, like why we moved, what we're doing here, etc...feel free to comment, and maybe I'll make a blog post out of it or something.