So- I just blogged to all my FB friends about how I wanted to do 52 "Sunday Dinners" in a year or so. I hope I get an invite or two, as that was probably one of the oddest things I have ever written. I write many strange things, so that is saying a LOT!
The thinking behind this all is that I would love to write about these dinners. I would love to write about the friends, the food, the ambience, the LIFE that is a dinner as company. I would like to be the company because I don't think I get out nearly enough these days, and am missing being around people.
This also fits in nicely with two things I have been challenged to do- write, and connect with others in a way that honours who I am. I adore conversations that meander and flow, I love conversations that challenge me to see something differently. I have so much fun walking into someone's home that I have never been to, and just poking around (as politely as possible) to see the pictures that adorn their homes, and the knicknacks that sit here and there and what colors they have picked for their walls. I like the ebb and flow of children coming in and out of kitchens and rec rooms and bedrooms. I enjoy seeing how other people live, and comparing and contrasting their lives to what I have done, what I am doing, or what I hope to be like as I get older.
I really like to eat, but am finding that cooking for only a few people is not a canvas for inventiveness. It is boring, in fact. Mostly because I abhor leftovers, so I cook as little of everything as I can get away with. Even so, there is the inevitable last piece of pizza, the bag of beans from Costco that end up rotting, and the bread ends that frustrate me so. Even though I live in a place that takes collecting food waste for compost to a whole new (and very stinky) level, I am not a fan of always being responsible for that last little bit of stuff that seems t collect in the back of the fridge and is found later looking like something that a mad scientist has dreamed up. And I am tired of the same old, same old dishes. Somewhere out in Facebook land there must be someone who makes something that goes beyond my five staple meals that I cook because it is what everyone at my house will eat??????
And if truth be told, I think I make a much better guest than host. As a host, I run myself ragged to do the "perfect meal" - which usually is successful- but then I find myself turning into "Martha", and am cleaning and tidying while everyone else gets to talk. I do that enough at work! I want to be a part of the real action- the conversations, the delicious first bites, the oohs and the ahs- rather than worrying the whole time over if the meat is cooked properly or if I remembered to get everything out of the fridge or the oven.
I would love to gather recipes! I love recipe books, and have gone through a few in my time. They have either been recycled or re-loved in the recent past, but the favorites that I could not live without reside in a special place in my kitchen. I need some more to pore over, my mouth watering as my imagination pines for comfort foods, or exotic lands and spices that I can hardly pronounce.
I have friendships to cement and then to remember as I write about them for posterity's sake. There are a lot of people in real life and on Facebook that I would like to know better, and I hope some of them invite me for a meal so we can re-connect in a way that you only can while sharing a meal with a person.
So- Here is to being the perfect guest 52 times in a year!!
