Macgyver Dinners

In a time long ago and a land far away, John and I lived in a rented bungalow in a hip part of town. It had a weird kitchen and tiny closets, but it also had a dining room the size of a ball room and a huge covered front porch. It's like the house knew that we would enjoy our newlywed life by having friends over for meals and such. That's what we did. I don't have pictures or a journal of our time there, just a lot of good memories. We had very well-planned meals-sometimes we cooked the food and sometimes we had organized potlucks. No matter how the meal was made, we had fun. Today things are different. While there are rare times that I can have the house to myself for cooking club, things are different now. 

To be honest, kids have slowed us down on entertaining. This is one area of our life that we have not maintained since having kids and we are both finding our sea legs when it comes to friends and dinners and babies. We've done many different things here: chaotic potlucks with babies is our most common way to share a meal. We've also had my mom or brothers take the kids for the night while we have friends over. My neighbors get together once a week with their friends and everyone brings their leftovers to share (great idea). Sometimes we just get pizza. We're finding our way back, because it's an important part of our lives that we want back. 

Last Saturday, we had our first Macgyver dinner. This is where there are no plans to get together, they just pop up while chatting at my neighbors' house after a run. A little conversation later, we're checking our freezers and texts are flying and next "I've got some frozen tilapia/me too/we can run to the store for extra corn/they can get the chips and salsa," nine of us are getting together for a meal that we pulled together with what we had. Just like Macgyver making a ninja bomb from a pocket knife and pocket lint. 

Mark my words, this is the best way to go. While I love setting a table and doing some extra cleaning, we all get extra relaxed and comfortable when our meals come together the last minute. Macgyver dinners are my new jam.