At the Table we Eat and Talk

Are you enjoying Bread & Wine week as much as I am??  This week, in honor of Shauna Niequist's new book Bread & Wine: a Love Letter to Life Around the Table, with Recipes, I'm talking all things Bread & Wine related.  Tuesday I shared some thoughts on grace and cooking, yesterday I gushed over Shauna's book, and today is all about the dinner party I threw for some of my favorite ladies with the help of Shauna's new book.  Don't miss tomorrow's post 'cause it's a giveaway!

“At the table we eat and talk.”  Sarah taught this phrase to the little boy she used to take care of.  He was used to eating in front of the television but Sarah wasn’t playing that game.  So she set a table for lunch, turned off the TV and told her little buddy, “at the table we eat and talk.”  She said it every day until eventually he would finish the phrase for her. 

At the table we eat and talk.  It’s so simple and sweet. 

Sarah told this story around my table last Saturday night.  I gathered my most favorite women to my home for a “Bread and Wine/Ladies I Love” dinner party.  I was itching to try some of Shauna’s recipes from Bread and Wine and, as we are about to move in with my parents in a matter of weeks, this felt like my last chance to entertain for a while.

At some point in the evening Whit got a hold of my camera and the photo quality improved exponentially.

I invited my favorite women.  In a stroke of good luck, almost all could come.  Ten women gathered around my table, eleven counting me.  Whit, Sarah, Mal and the other Sarah participated in all sorts of embarrassing antics with me in college and are all founding members of book club.  Charity and Ashley have stuck with me since my high school days, but our friendship now is even more significant than when we were sixteen.  Devon is one of the grace dispensers I met through my internship.  Kate used to live next door to me and was a key player in my survival of early motherhood.  Kelly manages to span all eras of my life, high school, college and motherhood.  And my sister Ryann, well, I play favorites and she’s mine.

In an unprecedented move I actually tried these recipes out before the big Ladies I Love party. I’m usually famous for trying a recipe out for the first time for a dinner party of ten, not reading the recipe correctly and then sending my husband and another party guest out to pick up a missing ingredient.  (I can feel the cringes through my computer screen.) This time however, one of my favorite ladies was going to be out of town for the actual dinner party so I invited her and another pal over for a trial run.  I’m so glad that I did.  It made Saturday so much smoother and I felt more present than at any other dinner I’ve hosted.

I served the Green Well’s Michigan Harvest salad and the Real Simple cassoulet.  We devoured the goat cheese biscuits.  (Can we talk about the goat cheese biscuits for a second?  They are to die for.  Seriously the easiest and best thing I’ve ever made.  I may or may not have misread the recipe and put twice as much goat cheese in them, but you know how I feel- you can never have too much cheese.  For real pals, buy the book, make the goat cheese biscuits, love your life.)  After the plates had been cleared I brought out dark chocolate sea salted butter toffee, which we munched on as the conversation continued.

And oh, the conversation.  After we were seated and served I asked everyone about the best meal they ever had.  Dinners and lunches in foreign countries while studying abroad or travelling were popular favorites.  Charity shared her morning routine of breakfast with her husband before he goes to work.  Ashley’s favorite meal was a breakfast of fish and grits that she caught herself with her grandfather.  The thing about all of our favorite meals is that they had very little to do with the actual food itself.  For all of us what we ate wasn’t as nearly as important as who we ate with and the conversations that happened during the meal. 

We sat around my table for hours last Saturday night discussing social justice and parenting, being women and the blessings female friendships.  We shared funny memories and difficult ones.  We decided that women could be each other’s worst enemies and also their biggest cheerleaders but that nothing takes the place of good chats with your girlfriends.  The table and what happens around it wove its way through our conversation, an idea we couldn’t seem to escape no matter the topic of discussion.   At the table we ate and talked.

When I think about this night I could cry big fat tears of gratitude for these women, these smart, funny, fantastic women who are moving me, inspiring me, pushing me towards my best self.  I am fortunate, I know, to have such amazing women in my life.  These women come from different backgrounds and are in different life places.  Some are mothers, some wives, some single.  They have varied careers, interests, opinions and perspectives.  But all share that most important quality of depth of character.  These women are compassionate thinkers, strong, intelligent quality people.  If I’ve done one thing right in my life it’s to pick the best kind of women to call friends.  

You know how I feel about wine corks don't you?