I worked really hard on the charcuterie platter I took for this evening. I was super proud of my work! :D Will have to try this again some night for wine club.
It was a lovely evening. Matt did Dutch oven cooking and made two Guinness stews - one with meat & potatoes and one vegetarian. They were both soooo good! Nancy made foccacia bread and Bob made both a peach and a cherry pie. We had a feast! Then enjoyed an evening of sitting around the table visiting. Very nice.
Julie and Brenda
Matt and Brian
Enjoying both kinds of pie - with Matt and Brenda's famous homemade ice cream! :D
Matt, Brenda, Nancy, Brian
Marvin, Laura, Bob, Debbie, Julie
What a lovely evening! We sure missed those who couldn't attend, but it was a great night.
Friday night was Dinner Club at Bob and Debbie's house. Their theme was 'game night'. Marvin wasn't feeling quite up to attending this one, which was too bad. Scott also missed since he was out of town and Julie had to skip this one because her Saturday schedule was just nuts! But those of us who could attend had a wonderful time! We ate a great meal (I need to get Bob's chicken recipe, Brenda and Matt's artichoke side dish recipe, and Nancy's Scottish caramel/banana pie recipe!) All the food was delicious!
After the meal we stayed together as a large group and played a full round of Apples to Apples. For a girl who used to LOVE playing games when I was a kid, I do not play enough games as an adult! I truly enjoyed this evening and all the games we played, which were all new to me! Even Apples to Apples! Great game! Then we split into two groups and my group played two more games - Spots and Match Em. I really enjoyed both of those games and feel they would be good games to own. Spots has many possible levels of play for extending the challenge and keeping the game fresh. Match Em was just a whole lot of fun! Jonathon was our big winner - coming out on top in both games. But I at least gave him a run for his money on Match Em! Very fun night. :) The other table played Five Crowns - and I think it got competitive! :D
Thanks so much to dear Bob and Debbie for hosting this Dinner Club gathering. Next up - we will be at Matt and Brenda's for campfire cooking night in June! (I love, love, LOVE Dinner Club!)
Saturday evening we gathered at Brian and Nancy's house - our hosts for Dinner Club - the Poetry edition. :) Their edict was that we should all come prepared to read/recite a poem of our choice, AND that we should bring a poem we had written ourselves. I spent quite a bit of time thinking about which poem I would share - there are so many wonderful poets to choose from. I thought I had settled on a Mary Oliver poem, but then I ran across my little binder from way back in high school - 1985. I went to state competition with this set of poems depicting the life of a woman from spanning from young girlhood through old age. Well, it was clear that I would choose this to share - seemed to be kismet.
I remember so vividly how Mama helped me select the poems to use and then helped me practice and practice... I would stand on the bottom stair and she would sit in the living room and give me tips and pointers on how to vocalize and enunciate and, the hardest for me, pause for effect. I didn't win but I did place and I know it was because of Mama's coaching.
As for bringing a poem I wrote, I sort of cheated and used a poem that I wrote many years ago - back when I wrote poetry all the time. I even dug out that little poetry book that Daddy had 'published' for me - printed locally here at Simpson Printing Company. I decided on an early poem of mine - Run Wild. I remember writing most of that one night in my closet with a flashlight... since I was supposed to be asleep - but couldn't quit thinking the lines in my head and knew I needed to get them down on paper. I was in 5th grade and I remember exactly who I was thinking about with these lines. (goodness... I think I was *a lot*) :)
Marvin chose a song to share for his poem. It really is a perfect song/poem for Marvin and one he has always liked - Cowboy's Prayer by Don Edwards. See if you don't agree...
It was so much fun to hear all the different poems that people chose to share and the poems they wrote. What an incredibly talented group!!! One thing that blew my mind!... Out of all the poems in the world, 2 of our Dinner Club members chose the SAME poem to share! Nancy went first and shared The Cremation of Sam McGee. What a great poem and she shared it so well. Bob and Debbie were out of town but had zoomed in for the poetry part of the evening and Bob was 2nd in line to share his poem. He began by saying, "She stole my poem" and I laughed out loud because I thought he was kidding. He was not kidding! That was, in fact, the very same poem he had planned to share! What a coincidence! It turns out that Bob had memorized The Cremation of Sam McGee when he was in high school for extra credit to bump up his grade in a class. That is quite a poem to memorize, but he got it done and that higher grade in that particular class ended up being the key to him getting scholarships and going to college... and the rest, as they say, is history. Isn't that a great story? And Bob can still recite the entire poem by heart today! I am so impressed!
All the poems were wonderful and I wish we had just had a video camera recording the whole event - I would watch it over again!!! Susan was dressed like a beatnik and it became clear why when she shared her poem that she wrote. It was a brilliant beatnik style riff on what it was like to move to this town - and right as the pandemic was starting. How lucky we are that Susan and Jonathon DID move to town and that we got to become friends! Then Bryan K read his original poem and it was so good... at the end he shared that he wrote it using ChatGPT. Of course the IT guy is the first person I know to utilize ChatGPT. :) What a cool assortment of ideas, inspirations and performances by every single person there.
Then it was time for dinner and as always, we enjoyed a true feast. Dinner Club is set up where everyone brings one course for the meal. And I must say that all are terrific cooks! What a fun and enjoyable evening. The next Dinner Club will be at Bob and Debbie's house (when they return from their travels - mid April). :)
Here are the poems in that little binder (my eyesight was clearly way better when I was a teenager!!) :D
And here is the poem I wrote (long ago) that I shared at Dinner Club.
from 5th grade *me*
I forgot that I also shared this one - since we had this Dinner Club poetry gathering in the month of February. This was *me* at 21. :D ha!!!
Side note - if nothing else, just to prove I actually was there, here is a photo of me. :D hahahaha! I was deeply enjoying Brian's massage chair - WOW!!!!! AMAZING indeed!!!
This was the date of our first Dinner Club hosted by another couple. It was at Bryan and Deb's house and they chose the them of Murder Mystery Night. We were all assigned a character and were to show up 'in character' for our 'company ugly Christmas sweater party'. Sadly, I did not have an ugly Christmas sweater, but I felt my character might not have worn one anyway. :D
Deb and Bryan are amazing! They had every detail taken care of... from signs on their front door about this being the location for the Tasty-ful office party - special parking for the employee of the month in the driveway... To hilarious 'inspirational' posters on the walls in their house. And lanyards for each guest with their name and photo and job title. Truly, they are remarkable and we all entered the house in character.
Deb was "Lotto Mop" and she is a born actress. I can see where Aaron gets it!
This was at the end of the evening when we were discovering that Brian was the killer. The funny thing is he said he has only done 2 of these murder mysteries in his life and both times he was the murderer! :D ha! His 'confession' was fabulous! I told Nancy that I'm sure it will all be okay - it means nothing. :D hahahaha!
Another truly funny part of the evening was that Bob was so totally in his character that I believe Jonathon was afraid he was going to have to do a medical intervention! Bob was playing a character who would basically drop off to sleep mid-sentence and was kind of out of it. Jonathan was so taken with Bob's acting that he didn't realize it was acting! Same with Scott who played a character named Sellon Slick... a salesman who thinks he is 'the best looking guy in town'. Susan even said to Scott once that he needed to read from his script and Scott laughingly replied that he had memorized it! He was so smooth Susan thought he was off script! :D We can see who the natural actors are in this group! Love it! I also really enjoyed seeing Aaron on his pre-taped parts that were played throughout the evening. Kudos to him for helping his parents pull this off!
Marvin, Susan, Jonathon, Nancy, Brian, Julie, Debbie, Bob, Bryan, Deb, Scott, Anne
I was glad to see this note at the very start! :D Whew!
I love how Dinner Club is taking off! Each host has their own unique idea for their theme and some will push me beyond my comfortable boundaries (like poetry night coming up next at Brian and Nancy's house!). This is a wonderful group of people and I so enjoy spending time with them. Really looking forward to many more Dinner Club evenings with this group.
We started Dinner Club in November of 2021 and then life sort of got in the way. It proved to be quite difficult (impossible really) to schedule a time when all the couples/members could attend. So I determined it was time for a reboot of Dinner Club with the new directive that the hosts would set the date and all who could attend would - but we would understand that it wouldn't necessarily work for all. To kickstart things again we decided to host a movie night. Most were able to attend and we enjoyed dinner and visiting around the table. Then we watched the movie Avalon, which is truly one of my all time favorites. The evening was a success and I think we have rebooted Dinner Club nicely. Deb and Bryan are up next for hosting in December, followed by Brian and Nancy in February. Wonderful!
The evening began with this beautiful double rainbow. Seeing a rainbow (and a double one at that!) always grabs my heart... and I think of Mama.
One great thing about Dinner Club... so much delicious food! :)
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