Radical Hospitality

At a meeting this week our new pastor talked briefly about hospitality...how it's the people that matter, not the perfectness of your house or cooking. It had been quite some time since we had invited friends for dinner. And those words kept coming back to me all week.

So yesterday I called friends and asked them to dinner. A last minute invitation means the meal must be simple. And "simple" suited the miserably hot weather, too. It's not the time to be slaving away in the kitchen. We spent much more time talking and laughing than cooking. So glad I practiced a little "radical hospitality" this weekend. My house may not have been perfect, but this recipe comes close.

You've seen this recipe here before--but I tweaked it a little this time.

Chopped Steak Salad

3/4 to 1 lb. flank steak

salt & pepper

1 bag hearts of romaine 

1 to 2 cups chopped red cabbage

1 (15-oz.) can cannellini beans, drained & rinsed

1/2 cup chopped roasted red peppers 

1 cucumber, peeled & sliced

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

Italian salad dressing

Blue cheese crumbles

Season steak with salt & pepper. Grill 3 to 5 minutes on each side. Let rest a few minutes, then cut thin diagonal slices across the grain and cut into bite-size pieces.

In a large bowl, combine steak with romaine, beans, peppers, cucumbers and parsley. Toss with salad dressing. (I used a whole 14-oz. bottle of Kraft.) Sprinkle blue cheese over the top.

That's it---your whole meal in one bowl. We added Sister Shubert's Dinner Rolls and that was it. It's pretty. It's delicious. The entire meal prep was no more than 15 minutes. Not even many dishes to wash up. There's no excuse not to have friends over when it's that easy. I'll finish cleaning later this week. Maybe.

The fun part was that today WE got a dinner invitation from other friends for later this week! I think there really is something to the saying that what you give, you get back.