We’ve decided to follow their lead. This week, I’ll post on facebook about our weekly open-house family dinner. I’ll also mention it at our choir rehearsal on Monday - that’s 50+ potential attendees right there!
I love to cook for friends, and I love the idea of a revolving-door dinner party with an ever-changing guest list. And that, if someone can’t make it one week, no worries, there’s another chance in 7 days. I also think it’s sensible to stick to one dish, like the meatballs in the article. Maybe I’ll do spaghetti with my ragu (it’s not true Bolognese, but standard red meat sauce.)
Does anyone else do a similar thing? How’s it work out for you?
Just jumping in to say I NEVER entertain, and barely cook (my wonderful spouse does that) … but the Southern Foodways organization is 100% TOPS for regional Southern cooking.
Somewhere on their site there should be info on the Mississippi Tamale Trail
I’ve not yet read the article, so I cannot comment on that. However, my SIL would do a monthly Sunday Spaghetti dinner for her friends and local family. Everyone seemed to enjoy it.
I have tried and usually get no response. It’s that Seattle freeze working overtime.
The closest thing is that my wife and I are both members of “clubs” that do monthly meetings and members take turns hosting the meeting and providing food. That’s fun, but not primarily about the food.
When I was little, some of the older generation here in Virginia still kept “at home” days. This was a set afternoon or evening during which one was always open for visitors. It was customary to keep a light buffet of cold cuts and fruits or salads available as well. Very similar, really.
The first Friday night pasta is tomorrow. I only have one person confirmed, which is a bit disappointing, but several people have said how much they like the concept, and that they’ll be sure to come another week, which is surely partly the point
We have a holiday party coming up on a Friday night - tossing up whether to have a “guest host” come and dish out the meal (which I can cook beforehand), or moving to Thursday night for that week. Both have pros and cons. Hmm.
I advise not moving it around. We used to use the “wreath rule”. This basically meant that if the wreath was up on the door, we were open for visitors. If we were sick, or out, or whatever else, we simply took down the wreath, and people knew this was not a good time/day to drop in.
You could do something similar on your Fridays - just identify some token decoration that would go up when you are doing Friday dinner. Or if you think it will be a rare occurrence to miss a day, then just put the word out for that week, and leave a note of apology on the door for those days.
This is a great concept! I look forward to hearing how it develops. You should probably wait until after the Holidays to judge whether it is really working or not. Everybody gets insanely busy this time of year.
I used to do a “winter game nights” thing with anyone who wanted to show up from Facebook, and I would provide the food. It was really nice! But within a year everyone - and I mean everyone! - who had been coming to game nights had a kid and suddenly people couldn’t leave their houses anymore. And I didn’t have room for all the extra people.
I did enjoy the “worlds colliding” aspect of it. I don’t have friends to hook up romantically (everyone’s already spoken for) but I loved finding connections in topics of conversation.
I don’t think I could deal with the Friday night dinners these days by myself, I’d need a partner. But I would be the sort of person who shows up every week!
I’m a little bit surprised that an Italian family would choose “Friday night meatballs” as their theme. Surely at least some in their circle of friends would be Catholics? But the general idea is certainly sound.
