Jennifer - I’m really glad to hear how hosting that meal became a source of comfort for you. THe power of food is remarkable.

Jenny - I totally agree. I’m not the kind of person who generally fusses over how things look, but there’s something about those small touches (like replating guacamole) that make all the difference at a dinner party and makes guests feel like they’re really being taken care of.

Aunt Barbara - Hi! So great to hear from you, and I’m delighted that you’re reading Jcarrot! I aspire to the grace and ease with which my mom handles hosting…it’s truly a site to see (or eat!)

I read the discription of your dinner party with great “relish”, having been the recipient of your mother’s hospitality on many occasions. I can picture her home and dinner table, and am delighted that you are carrying on her traditions.

Thanks for the bean dip recipe and others. I look forward to more articles by you.

With love,
Aunt Barbara

As one new to living in NYC, with all its exhilarating and at times overwhelming social opportunities, I find the dinner party brings much needed intimacy in an atmosphere of trust.

If I know and connect to and trust the host, there’s a good chance, I think to myself, that I’ll connect to their circle of freinds.

And I can also hope to meet some interesting and suprising individuals, at the same time learning more about some other aspect of the host’s interests and personality…

Imagining dinner parties with themes, activities, the imagination goes wild: the 80’s music-dance-dress, board games (balderdash, taboo, apples to apples, etc), political-social topics, pot-luck, share/teach a skill, whoooo!

I LOVE your post! I recently hosted my own dinner party this past weekend and experienced all of these same emotions. The “prepping” for the event stresses me out more than just about anything but I can’t think of a more enjoyable and perfect way to spend an evening. I even had a similar dilemma over whether or not to serve my homemade guacamole in the dish i mixed it in or to “replate” it as my grandmother would insist on. There is something about feeding your friends and watching them enjoy an evening in your own home that cannot be replaced by going out or meeting up any place else. Thanks for sharing!

It’s the Limmud posse all over again. :)

Leah, I was directed here by a Nigel email, and I admit that it’s my first time reading the Hazon blog.

I actually hosted a Shabbos meal a few weeks ago, the first time in a long while. I very much appreciate hearing other hosts’ experiences and thoughts, and I concur with certain points which you each make.

My meal ended up occuring in a “perfect” week. I say that because I had had a somewhat sad and unusually hectic Friday. I attended the funeral of a dear friend from my shul, a woman who had passed away of cancer, taken in the prime of her life. The type of person of whom everyone has endless stories to share.

I had gone to work in the morning, rushed downtown for the funeral at noon, and then rushed back to work for another few hours till 4:30.

Luckily, aside from a simple salad, most of the food had been taken care of on Thursday evening. However, I found that, as we were crying and recollecting fond memories at the funeral, it was the meal that evening that truly brought a smile to my face and a sense of comfort to me.

I was looking forward to having friends over, especially the multi-generational group which had been invited, many of whom did not know each other beforehand. Further, more importantly, perhaps in some strange way, the meal that evening ended up being a reaffirmation of life, of good times shared with friends, and presented a distraction to my sadness.

The meal really could not have happened at a “better” time. In the end, I needed that meal as much, if not more, than my friends did.

Throw everything into a small crock pot (up to 3 1/2 quart-sized), and cook on high for 1 1/2 hours, stirring after 1 hour.

As for the cornbread - you can use any cornbread recipe you like…just finely chop scallions (2 for 8×8 pan, 3 for 9×13 pan) and mix them in with the dry ingredients before adding the wet ingredients. I think the coating of flour helps the scallions stay spaced throughout the bread, instead of clumped all to one side or down at the bottom.

Enjoy :)

Care to share the black bean dip? How did it turn out? Would you do anything differently?

As a cornbread afficionado, I would also appreciate that recipe. I don’t bake enough cornbread for the kids. My mother’s cornbread of my youth used canned cream of corn, but I think there are recipes out there that call for frozen corn. I like having kernels in the bread, but your scallion recipe sounds intriguing.

“Exhausting and exhilarating.” That is throwing a dinner party, in a nutshell.