A glance at the clock, a gasp at how late it is, a frantic scramble to get the last dish out of the oven, and then…a knock on the door.
The above scene is repeated like clockwork almost every Monday evening at my house. It’s the time when our friends come over after work. We enjoy a home-cooked meal around the dinner table and then move to the living room to play games. It’s a pocket of small town love on the doorstep of Washington, D.C. –a bunch of young professionals making this urban jungle their home. I call it, Domestic Monday.
In October of 2019 I landed a new job that moved my weekend to Monday’s and Tuesday’s. I set out to fill that time with new hobbies or skills that I would like to learn, but hadn’t devoted time to. Two big skills came to mind: cooking/baking and hosting.
I live in a place where everyone is busy. Life happens on our screens and if we’re not careful we’ll go weeks without a meaningful conversation. People don’t really get to know each other, they just get used to each other. At least that’s how it was with me. My job kept me busy and what time I had to myself I spent by myself or hanging out with my friends at our favorite taco joint. The idea of inviting people over to our house for a meal with multiple courses (think dinner + dessert…nothing fancy) around a table where people in their twenties looked at each other and talked while they ate seemed historic. But I wanted to experience it.
I wanted to be able to manage my time so that I could cook multiple things and serve them together to my friends. I wanted to be able to figure out recipes and eventually have a sense of what goes well together without any guidance. I wanted to be able to invite people over and create a space where they are free to know and be known. A place where we could laugh because of things our friends said, not because of the latest episode of our favorite TV show. I wanted to know my friends. Not just their names and what they do for a living, but what their favorite family traditions were and how life’s going now that they’ve got a new apartment. I also wanted to get to know my neighbors. I wanted to be able to walk down my street and know the names of the people I pass, to meet new people and make new friends that have nothing in common with me except that we live in the same city and are human. So I started Domestic Monday.
Every Monday I prepare a new dish, ideally something I’ve never made before, and serve it to any of our friends (new and old) who are able to join us. My sister/roommate is the guest of honor who attends every Domestic Monday religiously…I’d like to think it’s because she wants to not because she’s stuck in the same house as me. Our other roommate works Monday nights. I’m determined she will be part of Domestic Monday one day. We’ll just have to get creative.
And that’s that. I’m just a Midwest girl in an East Coast city. The budget is small, the skills are mediocre, the experience is wonderful. This blog is an effort to bring you into my Domestic Mondays, too. Please take any of these ideas and incorporate them into your own lives as you brighten the world you live in.
Happy cooking!
Keni
