Enough with the Sweatpants Already

“The fondest memories are made when gathered around the table with family and friends.” 

-Anonymous

Ah spring. What a beautiful time of year with the flowers in bloom, tree pollen coating our cars yellow, and noses sniffling nonstop. Add the plague to the mix and spring of 2020 is a wild one, that’s for sure. Easter was cancelled by the Pope. Churches were closed. People protested. It didn’t stop us from having an easter-y dinner at home…four days later though.

Our housemates decided early on that what we needed was a good old Easter dinner to raise some spirits. I agreed and added on that we should get dressed up too. No sweatpants, no gym shorts, no t-shirts. I broke out my favorite dress and put on makeup while Alex donned a pair of nice jeans and a button up. We had a lot of fun with it.

The idea grew from there. They set up an egg hunt (I won, because I’m the best egg hunter and also overly competitive about it) yesterday morning for us. Afterwards, we settled into our coffee and began the cooking. What they had originally planned as just ham and mac & cheese, became an entire ass feast. Our full menu included: ham, mac & cheese, scalloped potatoes, honey butter carrots, deviled eggs, homemade rolls, spring salad with strawberries, macarons, Oreo pie, Easter sugar cookies, and two kinds of wine. Needless to say, we have food for several days.

In these weird times, group activities are few and far between. While Alex and I are missing being able to go out to our favorite spots and mingle with other Duluth locals, we’re lucky to be able to live in a household of life long friends. It was practically an all day activity full of cooking, laughter, stories, and lots and lots of snacking. I’m pretty sure I gained at least five pounds yesterday. In fact, I needed two plates so I could sample everything.

Yeah, there’s no fancy dining ware. We already had our hands full of dirty cookware, thank you.

While not everyone has a house full of people, or even another person to dine with, there are ways to have your at home dinner parties with friends. Living in such a tech filled age has given us better access to our loved ones. People are having weekly Zoom meetings with family they typically only see once a year. They’re having Zoom happy hours with friends that, under normal circumstances, they’d get to go out with often. So even though we’re not seeing each other, we’re still able to be connected.

And thankfully, we also have Pinterest. There’s absolutely no reason for you to not learn how to cook right now. Maybe you’re like Alex was and not overly confident in the kitchen. We used Home Chef meals for him to learn his way around the kitchen. It’s not exactly affordable for everyone, but that’s where Pinterest kicks in. Scroll through the god awful “This is what my great grandmother’s dog used to cook when I was five” stories these recipes often come with and get to the goods at the bottom of the page. It lays out what you’ll need. As Chef Gusteau says “Anyone can cook.” If you don’t know that reference, I’d recommend looking it up on Disney+.

If you were to plan a spring dinner party, what would your menu include? Let me know in the comments. And as our new norm goes, stay the F at home.