food
Meals Made to Share
Editor’s Note: DCSC volunteer Airianna Beitler shares her experience of cooking for our great, big Casa San Salvador community. She delves into the importance of food for her and the significance of being able to share this with others. Food is very important to how people express themselves and their cultures. You can guess that…
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Day 11: Food
Editor’s Note: Domonique Thompson, Lay Missioner and new DCSC volunteer, shares her relationship with food and how it’s encompassing nature blends so naturally into community for her. During quarantine many people picked up new hobbies or skills to fill those endless hours in their homes. Some took up an instrument, challenge, or even a language.…
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Food Matters
Editor’s Note: Current missioner in formation, Sabrina Portner shares a poem she wrote that centers around her appreciation for food. The poem is paired with a photo survey depicting some of the meals that inspired her writing. What matters to you and why? Food. Food matters to me. Why? It nourishes us It satisfies us…
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Update from the Field: Food Changes Lives!
Editor’s note: DC Service Corps Volunteer PJ Herrera shares about a new health and wellness program he helped develop at his ministry site, So Others Might Eat (SOME). Food changes lives. Think about it! Likely some of your best memories have revolved around a dinner table, right? What about the times when someone shared a…
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A Sant’ Egidio Experience: Seeing Christ and Fueling Fires
Editor’s note: Missioner-in-training Tim Shelgren tells the story of the FMS community joining Sant’Egidio, a group of volunteers in DC who meet every Friday night to prepare foods, walk out into the streets, and offer their goods to men and women who are experiencing homelessness. As we set out for 21st Street tonight, we originally thought…
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Meatless Meals for Lent: Homemade Tortilla Recipe for Bean Taquitos
Editor’s Note: Missioner Cindy Mizes is now in Jamaica, but she has not forgotten her Texan roots. Here she shares the recipe for homemade flour tortillas, the building blocks for many meatless Tex-Mex recipes. South Texas is where I call home and where making flour tortillas from scratch is a tradition. There is nothing better…
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Meatless Meals for Lent: Quinoa with Black Beans
Editor’s note: FMS Missioner Erin McHugh shares a gluten-free vegetarian favorite for Lent. Since I have only been in Guatemala for about two months, I am not sure of special meatless meals they have for Lent, so I am going to share a recipe from home. In the US I am not much of a…
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Meatless Meals For Lent: Bolivian Llajwa
Editor’s note: FMS Missioner Maggie Van Roekel expands her hot sauce horizons with this staple Bolivian condiment. One thing that many people know about me is that I absolutely love hot sauce. It’s a staple for me that goes on almost anything that I eat. When I arrived in Bolivia, I was eager to try llajwa,…
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Meatless Meals for Lent: Sopa de Maní (Peanut Soup)
Editor’s Note: Missioner Aubrey Kimble has been serving in Carmen Pampa for just over a year. She shares a taste of Bolivia that can be recreated anywhere. One of my favorite traditional Bolivian dishes is sopa de maní, or peanut soup. This soup can be served with or without meat, but since the volunteers in…
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Meatless Meals for Lent: Dutch Babies (Oven Pancakes)
Editor’s Note: Missioner Anna Klonowski shares a family recipe traditionally made on Fridays during Lent. Note: This recipe calls for an oven safe pan 3-4 quart capacity with sides at least 3 inches high. Ingredients 4 eggs 1 cup milk ½ teaspoon salt 1 cup flour 1/3 cup butter Instructions Preheat oven to 425°F. Melt…
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Meatless Meals for Lent: A Taste of Home – Maryland Cream of Crab Soup
Editor’s Note: Missioner Amanda Ceraldi shares some local flavor from her Maryland upbringing in a meatless meal for Lent. Above is a picture of the river near the house where she spent her summers and first enjoyed Maryland Cream of Crab soup. Anyone who knows me can attest that I have a slight obsession with my home…
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Meatless Meals for Lent: Lentils with Spinach and Ginger
Editor’s Note: Missioner Janice Smullen offers the first simple, meatless meal for this Lenten season. Her recipe is adaptable for whatever ingredients you might have handy. I prefer to eat meatless, so Lent is never a dietary problem for me. When I was in the US, I would use the recipes sent out to my…
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Free to Have Less
Editor’s Note: Missioner Annemarie Barrett shares how moving towards a simpler lifestyle has positively affected her in physical, spiritual, and emotional ways. I wonder about how complex we make the concept of simple living; I think about how entrenched we have to be in consumerist culture to buy more books to teach us about consuming…
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Making it Rain
Editor’s Note: Missioner Brandon Newland reflects on the arrival of spring in Jamaica and the deeper life lessons that can be found in gardening. Despite the somewhat mild temperatures of winter in Jamaica, spring is still the beginning of the growing season for many crops. Last year we attempted a rather grandiose garden with one…
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Food on Mission
Nate writes: Here is a photo of our weekly food consumption for one week. FMS supports us with a monthly stipend that compares closely to the minimum wage of an average “official” work sector job of a Bolivian. And it’s worth noting that the majority of Bolivians work some where within the bounds of an unofficial…
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Bagels of Love
I love the food here in Bolivia. Cochabamba in particular is known for its food. There are however, a few foods I miss from the US. It’ll be some time before my next Philly Cheesesteak; hamburgers here leave a lot to be desired; and the closest I can come to a Primanti’s sandwich is trancapecho.…
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I Get by with a Little Help from My Friends
Lately my emotions have been all over the place. I get stressed out when I think of all the stuff I have to bring to and from the US. I’m stressed out about the missioners who will be leaving Bolivia (for good) while I’m away and won’t be here when I get back. Last but…
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Looking back
I can’t help but remember what I was doing this time last year. It’s weird because in some ways things have changed so much and in other ways, they are still the same. For starters, I live alone now. Last year, at this time, I was living with three other people. We had just moved…
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Are you hungry?
From time to time, my ministry site CUBE has short term volunteers from the United States. They come to share their time, learn more about Bolivia, and learn more about the fight against sexual violence. Although they bring the best of intentions, at times they struggle to understand the populations with which they are spending time.…
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Staying thankful – and healthy – on mission
This post is about my health. Now before you get all squeamish, even though this is regarding the stomach and all sordid details, I promise to leave out the gross ones. It starts with amoebas. Yes, they are little creatures living in your stomach, but I assure you that this is not the gross part.…
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The (Not So) Joy of Cooking
I can’t cook. In theory, I am capable of cooking. I can physically put the soup in the pot, but I find it’s always a chore. There is no passion or joy in it for me. I am blessed to have grown up in a family where both of my parents are not only good…
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Mission Monday: I’m Happy Here!
In today’s post, we share the joy, wonder, and happiness expressed by current lay missioner Hady Mendez at the beauty of mission service. I’m happy here in Bolivia. And even as I write these words, I’m knocking on wood because I don’t want to somehow jinx myself. I’ll admit it. I didn’t expect to be…
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Takeaway Wednesday: Recipe for Choclo Salad!
In today’s Takeaway Wednesday post, lay missioner Nate Mortenson presents a recipe for one of his new favorite Bolivian dishes: “Choclo Salad”! “Choclo Salad” prepared and photographed by Nate Mortenson It features a type of Andean corn with kernels much larger than traditional sweet corn in the United States: Read more about choclo here. It…
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Franciscan Friday: Building A More Human City
Domestic volunteer and program associate Chanda Ikachana continues our Hunger Action Month reflections by sharing her experiences of befriending those who are homeless in downtown D.C. Over the past few months, I’ve volunteered with the Sant’Egidio community on their Friday night food-runs, a ministry to the homeless in the Dupont area downtown. Last week, our…
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Franciscan Friday: Learning about Humility In the Strangest Ways
Lay missioner Jeff Sved tells a story of purchasing food for the prison kitchen in Cochabamba, Bolivia. “Cabeza de baca…” “Wait a second! You want me to buy cow heads?” The head delegate of one of the prisons here was actually asking us to go out and buy cow heads. I guess when you’re cooking…
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Kitzi’s Quinoa Recipe: A Complete One Pot Meal
Quinoa is a Bolivian staple, second only to the potato. Our missioners in Bolivia have become more acquainted with this highly-nutritious grain, and today we share one of their recipes in honor of the ongoing celebration, “International Year of Quinoa.” The United Nations General Assembly declared 2013 as the “International Year of Quinoa,” in recognition…
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Mission Monday: Friends from the Streets of Bolivia to the Seats of the United Nations
While abroad, our lay missioners are invited into the community to share in the local peoples’ lives, culture, and ministries. This leads to strong bonds, so missioners who are able stay in touch with the community and go back to visit. Lay missioner Ginny Dachenhausen on mission in Cochabamba, Bolivia from 2007 to 2010. Ginny…
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Hunger Action Month: Welcoming the Nameless is Welcoming Change
As part of Hunger Action Month, we’re featuring guest posts from fellow Franciscan organizations dealing with hunger in the U.S. Today’s post comes from a Franciscan Outreach Volunteer serving at a soup kitchen in Chicago. Franciscan Outreach Association’s Marquard Center serves dinner to roughly 100 guests every night of the year. In addition to that,…
Read MoreNew Mission Candidates get a taste of Bolivia
Over the Labor Day weekend the new mission candidates started arriving from all over the country. And what good timing! It just so happened there was a Bolivian festival going on at the Prince William County Fairgrounds in Manassas, VA. Many of these candidates are interested in going to Bolivia for their two years, so…
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February Soups: Broccoli Cheddar and Moroccan Lentil
Paul O’Keeffe, OFM, and his soup (Photo by Dan Horan, OFM). Br. Paul O’Keeffe, chef-turned-development director, whipped up two more delicious soups for our second Souposium this past Sunday. If you couldn’t make the event or need some meatless dishes for Lent, here’s how you can make these soups yourself. Broccoli Cheddar Cheese Soup Ingredients…
Read MorePrayers for Christmas: Food and Health
We hear the Canticle of Mary, the Magnificat, in today’s Gospel from Luke: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;my spirit rejoices in God my savior.for he has looked upon his lowly servant.From this day all generations will call me blessed:the Almighty has done great things for me,and holy is his Name.He has mercy on…
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