International House of Fun

Friends, food, and booze.  These are a few of my favorite things.  (See what I did there?)  That being said, I have been attending a monthly dinner that combines all three of these things, along with new people, new foods, kitchen adventures, and lots of love.  It doesn't really have a name, (although the facebook group is called "Yo Mama So...") but why do you need a name for something so organic and cool?

These dinners started out as an idea that was bounced around for a while.  I had gotten the notion from a friend, whose group would have a themed dinner once a month.  I mentioned this in a random convo with my doppelganger.  And that was it.  We brought the idea up occasionally, but never really went anywhere with it.  Until we did.  The new year finally saw us get motivated.  DG offered her house for the first dinner, which was the first Monday of January. That first dinner was delicious.  The cuisine we chose was Middle Eastern.  So many yummy things.  And the core group showed up.  There were 9 or 10 of us that night.  And it was wonderful.

Good start, right?

Since that night, we have only grown.  We have had group members come and go, although the core seven of us are still going strong.  Each month, we vote on the following months theme.  We have had Indian, German, Greek, Finger Foods, Southern/Soul, Bacon (yes, bacon), and most recently, French.  Each month, we take on the theme as a personal challenge to our culinary skills.  I have personally taken on such delights as whole pork belly, boiled peanut hummus, tart rustica, and spanakopita.  Other amazing dishes made by my amazing friends include slow roasted goat, Cornish game hens, bbq pulled pork, baked brie, bacon pancakes, and bacon cupcakes with maple buttercream icing.  And let's not forget the booze.

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Tart Rustica with caramelized onions, heirloom
tomatoes, and goat cheese.

This group are big beer fans.  But we also love a great craft cocktail.  Metro Leprechaun took it upon herself to focus more on the alcohol side of things, (mostly because I don't think she wanted to cook!).  Some of the countries we have sampled have a great beer tradition, (think Germany), while others not so much.  This is where cocktails have come in.  Peach Bourbon sweet tea for Southern night, Bourbon manhattans with a salt pork shrub on Bacon night, and Lavender French 75s on French night.  And our classiest was good German beer, (Bitburger, Spaten), chased by shots of Jaegermeister.

But it's not just about the food or booze.  It's about the friends.  Hanging out once a month in someone's kitchen.  Jokes, insults, hugs, commiserations, inappropriate behavior, and lots of love.  I truly love spending time with these people.  They are genuine, nonjudgmental, and funny as hell.  We laugh, we cry, we nurse each other's wounds, literally. (I spent Bacon night with my foot propped up on a chair with an ice pack on it.  I discovered two days later that I had severely sprained it and had to be on crutches for a week.)

The infamous Bacon night.  It felt so wrong, but
so right.

In the end, the food could be cold Dinty Moore and tallboys of PBR and we would still have a blast.  It doesn't always have to be four star, James Beard award winning, celebrity chef produced meals.  Sometimes, it just takes some crazy awesome friends, some dedicated home cooks, a few gallons of booze, and lots of heart to make a mouthwatering, tasty meal.

"If you really want to make a friend, go to someone's house and eat with him... the people who give you their food give you their heart."  Cesar Chavez