Theme Dinners – Season 1, Week 4

The fourth Wednesday Night Dinner was another success. Our theme was Idioms. Each week, everyone seems to be embracing the themes. I am amazed at the creativity.

Here are the entries from the dinner:
Fork in the Road Cookie – Tied for first place (see image)
Who Cut The Cheese Plate
Pardon My French Cut Green Beans Sautéed with Almonds and Mushrooms – Tied for first place
High on the Hog (a large ham)
The Whole Enchilada
Ain’t That A Kick In The Head Rum Cake
Don’t Spill The [Red] Beans
Peace Out (She had little packets of Reece’s Pieces, which she proceeded to toss out to us.)
Cream (Spinach) of the Crop - Third place

Pardon My French was my dish. I hadn’t yet placed in the top 3 dishes so I was proud of my accomplishment. (Each week, everyone votes on his/her top 3 favorite dishes with 10 points going to the first place choice, 5 points to the second place choice, and 3 point to the third place choice.)

Next Theme: Dish that Reflects Your Fantasy Place to Live. I have already ordered Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I bet at least a third of the people will do French dishes so I really want to present something fantastic. I have until October 13 to work out the details.

We are having small events at each dinner evolve into traditions:
- Karly, the 10 year old, asks a discussion question while we are all eating – such “What did you want to be when you were 10?”
- Right before we sit down to dinner, each person has a short presentation describing his/her dish. (Our voting is based on the dish’s presentation, adherence to the theme, creativity, and taste.)
- At the end of our evening, the list of potential themes is handed out. Someone throws out a nomination, waiting on a “second” – then a vote. I think too many of us have been involved in formal meetings.

It looks like we have two more Dinners before we take a break for the holidays, starting up again in January. During that time, I plan on compiling all the recipes into a cook book.

With Jason, Debbie and Bart unable to attend, we were down to 11 people at this dinner. Next time, with the addition of two guests of my parents, plus Jason, Debbie and Bart back in, we’ll be up to 16 – our most ever. We also have three people on our “waiting list”. I want to invite them too, but we just don’t have the space. Maybe in January, we’ll start rotating houses.