I grew up on an acre of land in New York. The property had many, many deciduous trees scattered throughout. They were mostly oak with a cluster of sassafras and birch trees. The fall foliage was incredible - but then the leaves came down. Somewhere along my childhood my mother invented a social event: the leaf raking party. She made lasagna while we invited friends over to rake leaves. The yard was done in half the time and then everyone would gather around the table for a delicious dinner. That definitely left an impression on me, mostly that if you offer to feed teenagers and young adults they will come out of the woodwork.
These days I have a much, much smaller yard and a lawn mower that picks up the trimmings. This definitely frees up our Saturdays so we can take in a little college football. This past weekend we had the opportunity to see a Duck football game and then visit with Emily for a bit. Since the game was over by late afternoon, we planned to bring some groceries to her house and cook a quick meal for her and her friends.
To give you an idea of where Emily lives, she is in a house with 44 other young women. This house has a brother house with 28 young men living there. Given that there is usually a cook on premise during the week you can imagine the size of the kitchen. The kids are on their own for meals on the weekend, so we figured we might be feeding more than our own children Saturday night. We asked Emily for a meal suggestion and she came up with pizza bread, an easy recipe my sister-in-law gave me when we started hosting team dinners. So John had made up six batches of pizza dough that could rise while we were at the football game. We tossed the other ingredients in a cooler, along with salad fixings.
After the game we made it back to the house and began to unload the coolers. This cooking area is set up so a counter spans the length of the kitchen. This counter has about ten stools where the kids can sit and look into the work area while eating or talking. Once we had assembled the pans and cutting boards, we went to work. Three of us rolled out the dough balls and began to assemble the loaves. Kids started to congregate and socialize, partially out of curiosity about these parents cooking away, partially because of the marinara smells wafting in the air. Emily would greet them all, make introductions and invite everyone to stick around and try some pizza bread. Once all the loaves were out of the oven I had to make a decision: do we set the dining room table and invite everyone to join us? Should I simply bring the platters to the counter where all had assembled and forgo my vision of a family-style dinner? Looking at the group I decided to simply serve at the counter and keep it casual. I feared we might lose a few in the transition to the dining room. So we set out bowls of marinara for dipping and plates of sliced pizza bread. I took a spot along the counter and listened to the stories the kids told, met some new gals and a few of the guys, and simply took in all the energy. It was not the meal I planned per se, it was even better.
The older I get, the wiser I realize my mother was when raising me. She knew if you cook a meal for young adults, make extra. She also knew that if you want to know what is going on your child's life, invite a bunch of his or her friends over and simply listen. Somewhere along the way I lost count of how many we fed that night, but I know stories were told and we laughed a lot. So I continue to apply the things my mom taught me: hospitality is another word for love and when it comes to feeding young adults, cook a lot of food. We didn't have to rake leaves this weekend, but the tradition of feeding the kids and their friends continues.
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