Family dinner, family dinner... Our family dinners have a variety of concepts--from formal and strategically planned to thrown-together pitch-in. Interestingly enough, it doesn't count as a family dinner at our house unless several parts of our family (or friends) are included. More is truly merrier at our houses (there are 4 houses where our family dinners typically take place). Family dinner has become as much of a social construction as a way to share the cooking load and keep menus from getting stale.
Tonight's family dinner was impeccable and thrown-together! Courtney (who is always a source of culinary inspiration) wanted to try a quinoa salad with lemon vinaigrette, veggies, and wilted spinach (it was amazing!). Salad and starch, done. I had purchased a beautiful chimichurri-style cilantro pesto at the Broad Ripple farmer's market (from the Country Mouse stand--be sure to try their spicy red pepper pesto too) and used that to marinate lamb kebabs with some lemon zest. Boneless, skinless chicken thighs were also on sale, so I ended up marinating them in Bell's HopSlam IPA, buttermilk, and Greek herbs. We threw all of that beautiful meat on the grill, and the main course--a duo, no less--was done! Courtney tossed wedged Yukon Golds in a bunch of garlic and olive oil, and we roasted them. We cheated and steamed fresh corn on the cob in the microwave, but it was so sweet and delicious you didn't detect one ounce of short-cutting. Sides-done!
So we feasted. A simple gathering of family and friends is the perfect end to a long, fun-filled holiday weekend. Family dinners have become such a breath of fresh air for me that when I'm tempted to order in (or grab that drive-through paper sack), I just call Courtney and try to get a family dinner in the works. Courtney is technically my niece by marriage according to our family's strange generational structure, but we function more like great friends who work really well together, especially in the kitchen. We've started calling ourselves the "C and C Food Factory" on family dinner nights. Mostly we say this to make our husbands, my stepsons, and whomever else is listening roll their eyes (yes--it is an incredibly dorky name jacked from the one-hit-wonder 90s music group of "Gonna Make You Sweat" fame). We say this in part, also, because we are proud that we can crank out a massive amount of delicious food and make it look relatively easy. And it is easy with the whole family dinner concept, because no one gets stuck with all of it. So now the voices of my grandmother and my mother are popping into my head "Many hands make light work." How true that statement is!
