itinerant foodies

I’ve got a hand-me-down dining room table in my living room that goes unused about 360 days a year. Shoved in the window, behind the couch, the table holds a plant and is the official location for my household’s Thrift Store Pile. I frequently try to envision the room without the table and its accompanying hutch and credenza that my family dumped into my house days after I signed the mortgage papers. In my imagination, the space is airy and brighter. It’s lovely. For ages, I couldn’t emotionally part with the set; it was Granny’s. It keeps me close to her. But in the past few years, I’ve realized that it’s not actually my Great Grandmother, it’s just her stuff. It’s not going to make her come alive in my house; in reality, I can’t even remember the pieces in her house. (I do, however, remember a doll toilet paper cover in her powder room quite vividly.) These days, it’s not a faux connection with the dead that keeps the dining room set in my house. Instead, it’s the idea of no giant table at all. With three leaves, the table can hold close to 14 people. And there may be nothing I love more than shoving one-too-many people in my living room for cozy dinner parties. While these gatherings are few and far between, they’re frequent enough to keep the table.

In what’s becoming something of a November tradition, I threw a soiree shortly after Thanksgiving. Borrowing from a friend of Maya’s, I loosely termed it “Friendsgiving.” I’d cook a turkey dinner that would be outside of the constraints of family Thanksgiving. My inspiration with a list of recipes compiled by Saveur.  As is my habit when cooking for large parties, I made sure that each menu item was something I’d never made before and that I’d employ at least one or two new techniques. Just to add a little pressure to the event. (Why make it easy?)

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