{"id":688,"date":"2011-11-16T08:57:32","date_gmt":"2011-11-16T16:57:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/katherinerw.com\/?p=688"},"modified":"2011-11-16T08:57:32","modified_gmt":"2011-11-16T16:57:32","slug":"hosting-dinner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/the-matic.com\/archive\/katherinerw\/2011\/11\/16\/hosting-dinner\/","title":{"rendered":"hosting dinner"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
\"Mud<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Mud Pie<\/em><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

This year I decided to host a party for my birthday. I haven’t hosted an adult party at my house since I moved to San Francisco over five years ago. It is one of those things that can be nerve racking because you want to get it right – have the right amount food, have everyone enjoy themselves, and not be too exhausted after the whole thing.
\n <\/p>\n

The party was a celebration of my birthday but more so an appreciation to the friends I have made here. Moving to a new place with almost no connections can be daunting, building friendships takes time. I have been lucky to meet really great people through work, gatherings in my neighborhood, and from my daughter’s school activities. <\/p>\n

For me, the food was important. I planned to cook everything myself. When discussing options with one of my friends\/guests, he commented “just buy a couple of frozen lasagnes.” I chuckled and thought “no. way.” I wanted to cook and put the time into making a great meal. The menu included vegetarian and meat lasagne, salad, wine, and the favorite dessert in our house, mud pie.<\/p>\n

It’s fun to get together and have something good to eat…. Julia Child <\/a><\/span><\/h4>\n

Dinner parties are a great way to build community. Making a meal for someone shows that you care about them. Inviting people into your house gives them a glimpse into your personal taste and style that maybe you do not display outside your house. Dinner parties give a chance to build closeness in a relationship that you may not get at a meal in restaurant. As I am writing, I am reminded even Jesus thought having dinner with friends was important before his death. <\/p>\n

Working in a area without a lot of fresh food retail options, I see people promoting gardens and fresh food a lot. However we shouldn’t forget the harvest and the opportunity to build community around the eating of food. There is even an organization, Spoons Across America<\/a>, teaching kids to plan, organize, and throw dinner parties for their family and community though its Dinner Party Project. Another way to share the work is to have a progressive dinner party<\/a>, each course is eaten at a different house throughout the evening. <\/p>\n

When was the last time you invited your community to your house for dinner?<\/p>\n

Read the other articles from the series here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mud Pie This year I decided to host a party for my birthday. I haven’t hosted an adult party at my house since I moved to San Francisco over five […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5,6],"tags":[51,57,101,116],"class_list":["post-688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community","category-dinner-series","category-home-life","tag-dinner","tag-food","tag-san-francisco","tag-urban-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/the-matic.com\/archive\/katherinerw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/the-matic.com\/archive\/katherinerw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/the-matic.com\/archive\/katherinerw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-matic.com\/archive\/katherinerw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-matic.com\/archive\/katherinerw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/the-matic.com\/archive\/katherinerw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/the-matic.com\/archive\/katherinerw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-matic.com\/archive\/katherinerw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-matic.com\/archive\/katherinerw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}