Katlyn’s New Home
April 05, 2010
When Katlyn and her husband moved to Vermont recently for graduate school, they discovered the potluck party. Before that, living in a large city, Katlyn says, “When people got together, it meant going out.”
In Vermont, the new arrivals wanted to have a party, but couldn’t afford to feed their new friends. One of them suggested a potluck barbeque.
“It was just so cool,” Katlyn remembers. “One of my friends is a farmer. She brought watermelon, and bags of mesclun greens from the farmers market. Somebody baked a pie.
“People do it all the time, and it always works. People want to impress, so they bring something special and local. I even went to a potluck wedding!”
Gatherings at homes are better than those at restaurants, she says. “You can have larger groups and move around and talk to different people. At a restaurant, you’re stuck next to two people, feeling the pressure to get out when you’re done.
“I think I started out being a lot more uptight about it,” she says. “But you go to someone’s house, you learn, I’m not judging you if your bathroom’s dirty or if you’re just putting food in the oven.”
“I’ve learned I love hosting people in our home. It makes it feel alive.”
Mealtimes Matter Video
from Miriam Weinstein
About Miriam
Miriam Weinstein is an award-winning documentary filmmaker. As a journalist, she has won several awards from the New England Press Association. Her work has appeared in Boston Magazine, the Boston Globe magazine, Hope, and ParentSource. A former staff member for North Shore Weeklies and freelancer for Essex County Newspapers, she writes restaurant reviews and food columns as well as features on a wide variety of subjects. She lives in Gloucester, Massachusetts, with her husband and has two grown children.
The Surprising Power of Family Meals
In her book, The Surprising Power of Family Meals, Miriam Weinstein shows how this basic human institution helps nourish and strengthen our families today.