Dinner Diary: 38/52

Week 38 of Having People Over, and this weekend was the first time it actually felt (and tasted!) like fall. Tomorrow marks the first official day of fall, and I love the feeling of a season changing.

On Saturday, Nora and Penny started pulling out the Halloween and fall decor without being asked. We lit the first fall-scented candle of the year. The light outside is doing that thing it does in late September, coming in at a different angle, softer and more golden. The temperatures dipped, (just barely, before another heat wave rolls in), but it was enough. Something shifted. And so we leaned all the way in and did our first proper fall dinner of the year.

There is something almost magical about the right menu in the right season. The smells while you’re making it, the flavors while you’re eating it, the way it can make a whole room feel like a page has turned. That was exactly this weekend.

We had two families over, people we work with closely and spend a lot of time with on video calls, but had somehow never actually had over to our home in person. There is something both funny and a little embarrassing about that in retrospect. We talk to these people constantly. We just never had them over. That is fixed now.

One of the families had exciting news to celebrate: their oldest daughter recently received a call to serve a mission for our church, headed to Columbia, South Carolina. We knew nothing about South Carolina, which felt like an opportunity. A little research revealed that Columbia is apparently the capital of pimento cheese, that peaches are the official state fruit, and that boiled peanuts are something of a treasured local delicacy. So we decided to honor all three.

The pimento cheese dip was a hit. The fresh peaches, which we served alongside dessert, were devoured immediately. The boiled peanuts, however, require some discussion.

I found a canned version that claimed to be authentic and delicious. They were neither. The experience can best be described as soggy peanuts. A texture I was completely unprepared for and am still processing. Robby and I had never tried boiled peanuts before and this was apparently not the introduction we needed. I have so many questions. Is the canned version just fundamentally wrong? Is there a technique I’m missing? Southerners, and especially South Carolinians, please respond and tell me what I’m doing wrong, because I want to believe in boiled peanuts. I really do.

The rest of the menu was excellent and very much fall. Turkey Roast Dip Sandwiches, a Warm Autumn Harvest Salad, and a Brussels Sprouts and Apple Slaw that I’m currently testing (coming to Recipe Club next month!). Watch for that one. And then a Spiced Pumpkin Cake for dessert that tasted like fall in the best possible way and was the right ending to a dinner that felt like the season had finally arrived.

Both families have kids that line up well with ours, and the evening had that easy, comfortable energy that comes from being around people you actually like. No meltdowns, no door slams, no Penny-related incidents to report. Just a house full of kids finding their rhythm together and adults who didn’t want the night to end.

There is something I keep noticing, now thirty-eight weeks in. The right dinner on the right evening with the right people can make everything feel right. Fall is here. The candles are lit. We’re ready.Still always happy we hosted.

See you next Sunday at 5.

xo,

Kelsey