Yoga Pants, Artichoke Dip & Holy Communion
There is this lie floating around out there regarding dinner parties. You’ve probably heard it, and if we’re honest most of us have been tempted to believe it at various points in our lives. Thanks to carefully posed, filtered and curated images on Instagram and Pinterest we’ve come to believe in order to have people over the food needs to be homemade, the table needs to be set perfectly and you should always be wearing something adorable. As we kick off this series on 31 Days of Life Around a Table I’d like to start by saying Pinterest dinner parties certainly have their place. However, hands down the richest conversations and moments I’ve shared with people around a table are almost the exact opposite. In the winter of 2014 a group of 6 ladies, all leaders in our Mothers of Preschoolers group, got together one evening for a girl’s night. Everyone was told to bring something to share, and being in Los Angeles the favorite grocery store for all of us was Trader Joes. We sent one another a flurry of text messages that evening as we were all on the way, darting into the store to grab our food items, checking to see who was bringing what so we didn’t duplicate dishes. We arrived at Nicole’s house in our sweats, yoga pants and cozy socks, hair pulled up in ponytails and set about pre-heating her oven, reaching around one another as we plated food, heated appetizers in the microwave and popped baking sheets into the oven. With the food prepared we settled in around her kitchen table, passed bowls of artichoke dip, hummus, a lentil-bruschetta dip that always made an appearance at these gatherings and plates of veggies, pita and cookies. This was the first gathering, but it wasn’t the last. We continued meeting quarterly for 2.5 years, until I moved across the country. Someone would always start our time by saying “ladies! What is new?! What’s going on?!” and the sharing would begin. We’d hear about new job opportunities, potty training successes or failures, conflict with husbands, new books someone had read, struggles our kids were experiencing in school, sleep-deprivation, movies and current events. You name it, we probably covered it. We’d talk for hours, refilling plates, cherishing the chance to talk without being interrupted by our kids, usually only breaking up the gathering when husbands started texting to make sure we were still alive. There wasn’t anything Pinterest worthy about our time together. Almost none of the food was homemade (except Nannette’s artichoke dip which I'm pretty sure she only made often because i would send her texts begging her to). Houses weren’t spotlessly clean and make up was certainly optional. And yet as we met quarter after quarter, rotating houses--gathering around my table, Sara’s dining room, Amy’s living room and Nicole’s kitchen, trust grew. What started out as a fun girl’s night spin off of our MOPS leadership team turned into something so much more. I think precisely because we weren’t concerned with the elements of the evening, we were free to focus on one another. There was no food to prepare or elaborate table to set, so we were free to be good listeners, to laugh until tears rolled down our faces and offer wisdom and encouragement as someone struggled. Jesus invited us to his table. He told us to break bread and share it with one another and remember him as we do. He promised that where two or more are gathered in his name, he is among them. We broke pita bread on those nights and dipped it into lentils and olive tapenade. We poured sparkling water and tap water, we passed plates of cookies and bowls of fruit salad. And he was there, right in our midst, as we laughed, asked questions, shared stories, spoke words of encouragement over one another and headed home with both our bellies and our hearts feeling filled. As we think about the table this month may we remember simplicity often invites greater intimacy. May we be brave enough to invite others into our homes and around our tables when all we have to offer are Trader Joe’s appetizers and ourselves. And may we discover that that truly is enough.
Nannette’s Artichoke Dip
There is nothing healthy about this dip! It's everything an artichoke dip should be. Creamy, cheesy and once it's baked it's the perfect amount of bubbly goodness that belongs on a baguette slice.
8 ounces cream cheese
8 ounces sour cream
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
4 oz diced green chilis
Mix together and bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until top is browned. Serve with crackers or baguette slices.
