Shauna Niequist | Sarah Markley

Winners and a Recipe

June 18, 2009 by Sarah Markley 3 Comments

My Thursday morning joy is to announce the winners of the Shauna Niequist Cold Tangerines giveaway I hosted on Monday:

Sarah from Emerging Mummy
Joy from Simply Joy
Mrs. Montoya from Montoya Family
Shaun from Life in the Ferry (I don’t have a blog or an email address for you so get in touch with me!!)

If you can email me your mailing addresses at sarah at markleytech dot com I will be sure and mail those out to you as soon as I can.

For the rest of you, Shauna’s recipe for Chicken Curry with Mangoes (which, I might add, is the FIRST EVERY RECIPE I’ve posted on this blog). So, in essence, you are all winners.

CHICKEN CURRY WITH COCONUT, BASIL AND MANGOES
“From The $50 Dollar Dinner Party by Sally Sampson. I love this recipe and make it a lot for dinner parties – I double the recipe for 10 – 12 people, and serve it with a salad, pita bread, mojitos, and coconut and chocolate sorbets for desert…and then we are glad for leftovers because I think it might even be better the next day…

MIX TOGETHER
1/4 cup flour
2 TBSP curry powder
1 tsp Kosher salt
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

TOSS 2 1/2 – 3 LBS boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into small pieces into the above mixture.

In 1-2 TBSP Olive oil, ON MEDIUM HIGH HEAT, COOK CHICKEN UNTIL BROWNED, ABOUT 5 MINUTES ON EACH SIDE.

SET ASIDE

In 1-2 TBSP Olive oil, COOK UNTIL ONION IS GOLDEN, ABOUT 4 MINUTES.
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 red onion, chopped
1 TBSP fresh ginger, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped

ADD CHICKEN, LOWER HEAT

Add 4 – 4 1/2 cups chicken broth

COOK UNTIL CHICKEN IS TENDER AND BROTH IS REDUCED BY 1/4.

ADD AND SIMMER UNTIL HEATED THROUGH
1/4 cups currants or raisins
2 roma tomates, diced
1 mango, pitted and diced

OFF HEAT, ADD
1 TBSP fresh lime juice
3 TBSP fresh cilantro, chopped
3 TBSP fresh basil, chopped
3 TBSP shredded coconut

SERVE WITH WHITE RICE

Filed Under: giveaway, recipes, Shauna Niequist, winners

Cold Tangerines Giveaway

June 15, 2009 by Sarah Markley 30 Comments

So I mentioned a week or two ago that I had had the chance to do a brief email interview with Shauna Niequist, the author of Cold Tangerines.

And I’ve been rereading parts of her book (that I read awhile ago) recently.
Cold Tangerines is a collection of 40 stories about life and God and the author’s journey through life to find Him. Her writing is polished but conversational, her thinking is intense but absolutely natural, and her ideas are unique but common to the rest of us walking through marriage, motherhood and awareness of God and his goodnesses.

Shauna on Prayer:

Prayer heals all the muscles that I’ve been clenching fro a long time, while I’m holding it together, gritting my teeth, waiting for impact. Prayer, like yoga, like singing, brings soft from hard, pliant from brittle, possible from impossible, warm from cold, breath from breathless. And no matter what gets you there, it is better to be there than not. (CT, pg 149)

Shauna on Babies:

I think babies really do make you believe in God. They make you believe in God because there’s just something beyond understanding about their freshness and fragility and their smell and their toes. When they take their first breaths, and when they land, floppy and slippery, on your chest under the bright overhead light in an otherwise dim delivery room, when you watch their tiny sleeping selves, when you hear their wild animal cries, you know, you just know in your gust that God is real, and that babies have been with him more recently, have come more directly from him than our worn-out old selves have… This is my new prayer, my mother-prayer: Dear God, please please please and thank you thank you thank you. (CT, pg 188)

Shauna on Celebration:

For me, the first part of celebrating is noticing. I find it’s easy for me to get stuck in what’s broken or wrong with a situation instead of seeing the beautiful parts of it, too, or that I move so fast I don’t see anything at all. These days I’m trying to notice everything, to live slowly enough to see what’s unfolding around me, and especially to look for the tiny, beautiful surprises even in the midst of wreckage and ugliness. (from her interview)

Shauna has been more than generous with us. She has given me FOUR signed books to giveaway to my readers. So I am SO EXCITED to be able to host this giveaway this week.

What you have to do? Leave a comment. Please. Right now. Before 10 pm PST on Wednesday, June 17, 2009.

What I have to do? Announce the winners at the end of the week and then send off the books to the winners.

So comment. To win. Now.

Filed Under: babies, celebration, Cold Tangerines, giveaway, prayer, Shauna Niequist

Giveaway TOMORROW!!

June 14, 2009 by Sarah Markley 3 Comments

Come back tomorrow for a Cold Tangerines giveaway.

Hint: I have FOUR to give away!

Filed Under: Cold Tangerines, giveaway, Shauna Niequist

Interview with Shauna Niequist

June 5, 2009 by Sarah Markley 8 Comments

I had the chance to chat with Shauna Niequist, author of Cold Tangerines over email the past several weeks. Not only did she share her recipe for Chicken Curry with Mangoes with us, and gave us a few books to give away, but she answered all my questions about writing.

[Because I am a new writer. And I want to know]

Shauna on Inspiration:

“When I’m living well, everything inspires me. …If I’m taking care of myself — reading great books, sleeping enough, spending time with people who restore and challenge me and make me laugh, then all the world is inspiring….and If I’m running too fast, not connecting well tot he people I love, or living for the to-do list, then it all looks flat and gray, and I can stare at the blank screen for what seems like days. It’s a good motivator for me to live well, as if living well was not reward enough in itself.

Shauna on Mothering and Writing:

“…I was offered a book contract the week I found out I was pregnant with Henry. So up until that point I’d written a proposal and assorted essays that no one saw or read. …So I learned to write in a focused way when I was pregnant and with a newborn. One very positive thing is that when you’re working on a newborn’s schedule, you have no time to waste, so you just kick into high gear. I’d race out the door to the coffee shop, type as fast as I could for two hours and fifty minutes, and fly in the door, unbuttoning my coat, ready to nurse. …There’s this mythical image of a cabin in the woods on an island, but I couldn’t live that way. I like the contrast between this very mental, totally silent part of my life, and then the physicality and noise and wildness of life with a little boy. I need both to stay healthy as a person, and I’m very thankful for the opportunity.

Shauna on Honesty in Writing,

“I’m really committed to honesty as a writer. When I began, I said that I wanted anything I wrote to be honest, brave, funny and well-written. I’m attracted to honesty in other writers and other people, and I think humor surprises people, especially when the topic is faith. …What draws me to people is their honesty, the cracks in their armor, the tiny vulnerabilities that we reveal when we tell each other the truth about our lives. I’ve watched my friendships deepen in the moments of ugliness and truth in ways that never happen when we’re all dressed up and on our best behavior…

Shauna on her Message,

“I don’t think my ‘message’ has changed [since Cold Tangerines came out], even though the themes of the next two books are different than the theme of CT. I believe that God made us, that life is a gift and that to live in this extraordinary world is something worth celebrating. I believe that the big stories are almost unfolding in tiny almost-unrecognizable ways, and that our lives are transformed when we choose to believe that our everyday lives are sacred and special and worth investing our whole selves in. I believe in searching for beauty and redemption and connection and God’s fingerprints everywhere I look.

I love what she says about living well; out of everything she said, this resounded with me. Yesterday I wrote about inspiration and I neglected to see this simple idea: that taking care of myself, putting my priorities in order [including saying "no" to the things I need to say "no" to], and remaining connected with the people I love. This is when I truly feel the breadth to really write. This is inspiration.

Thank you, Shauna, for inspiring me.

Check back next week for a couple more questions answered from Shauna, a Cold Tangerines review and giveaway (and I’ll also post her recipe for Chicken Curry with Mangoes – I can’t wait to make it!).

How do you LIVE WELL?

Filed Under: Cold Tangerines, interveiw, Shauna Niequist