Family gatherings naturally center around food. No matter the occasion, people must eat. Meals are social by nature, the food being savored and flavored with the jokes, stories, and music; and the pictures passed around the table anticipated as much as the bowls of salad or potatoes.
Until we began our separate lives by going away to college, we four siblings had dinner together every evening. Since then we have gathered only for weddings, and now for funerals. It is fortunate that we were all together last weekend, fortunate that my house is big enough to accommodate all of us.
We still don’t have a dining-room table, but no mind: the card-table and a work table pushed together was adequate. The air mattress, the tatami mats, and the green velvet chairs with oversized ottomans were adequate for sleeping…
Page 2 has recipes I like to make for company: both are simple, tasty, and don’t require a lot of attention in the kitchen. They allow a hostess to join the guests.
(The picture shows some of us eating spaghetti Napolitan: they were skeptical about ketchup spaghetti being good and were therefore pleasantly surprised…)
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Tess's Japanese Kitchen 