Exciting news! This newsletter is a guest post by local writer Andrea Murrell. We hope you enjoy it!
State College and the surrounding area are undoubtedly home to amazing restaurants, so many of which feature and celebrate local food, farmers and even brewers. I absolutely love getting out to enjoy seasonal dishes and drinks made fresh from ingredients harvested within a handful of miles from home.
When our kids were really little, though, going to a restaurant felt oddly like a lot of work. It was also difficult to meet up with fellow parents who also had very narrow windows of time to socialize between children’s naps and bedtimes. Reservations? Not the best idea.
We learned quickly that dinner parties at home offered a lot of perks. Yes, dishes will fill the sink, but kids have room to roam and toys to keep them busy. Meanwhile adults have the luxury of speaking in full sentences without worrying if the salt shaker is going to be mistaken for a maraca.
Andrea, Chris, Greg, and Erin meeting up for a friends’ dinner at home
These casual dinner parties at home have become a bit of a tradition with two of our closest friends, Greg and Erin, who we’ve known since college and have two kids similar in age to ours. In fact, I actually can’t remember the last time the eight of us have all met up at a restaurant (though chances are high there was at least one spilled drink).
Gathering at home doesn’t mean we’ve given up on delicious meals infused with local ingredients, though. Happy Valley is a bountiful cornucopia of consumable goods. Fruits and vegetables, jams, honey, meats, cheeses, salad dressings, ice cream, beer, wine, cider, flowers, pumpkins, candles – really anything you’d ever need to make or set the scene for a dinner party are all produced here and easy to find in stores and at markets. With all of this goodness at our fingertips, simple yet fabulous meals that feature the flavors of the season are well within reach.
Quite a “haul!” A colorful assortment of local goods from one of my weekly trips to the Boalsburg Farmer’s Market on Tuesdays.
We try not to get into the weeds when planning our get-togethers. There might be a consensus on the main dish, but otherwise we get a rough idea of who’s bringing a side, salad, and dessert and let the rest fall into place. There’s also an understanding that there is to be no fussing if your family is hosting. Tidy up if you’d like but let’s pass on the deep clean for now. Besides, with any luck the weather will be nice enough to spend most of our time outside. The goal is to keep it simple and make room for fun.
On the day of the dinner, our families are always on time for our reservation for a party of eight at “get here when you get here o’clock.” The chatter and laughter takes over almost as soon as the front door opens. We’re louder than a restaurant would probably like us to be and the kids can sit at their own table if our boring conversations get too unbearable.
The different sides and such we make seem to always complement each other perfectly, despite not knowing what everyone plans to bring. I love seeing the different ways the passion and hard work of our community’s growers and producers fill the table. It might be in the form of a beautiful bowl of greens from a farmer’s market, a fruit salad with freshly picked berries from Way Fruit Farm, or even a mocktail made with shrub from Tait Farm Foods. Flowers from Greg and Erin’s yard or baby pumpkins sometimes find their way to the center of the table.
Speaking of pumpkins, if our families get together during the fall, it’s a non-negotiable that we meet at Greg and Erin’s house. This is because Erin is the equivalent of Mrs. Claus but for the autumn season. Her beautiful arrangements of pumpkins, gourds, and mums gathered from various local farms, combined with her knack for fall dishes like chicken chili, butternut squash risotto, and fall fruit salad are guaranteed to bring on a desire to throw on a cozy sweatshirt, take a wagon ride to a pumpkin patch, and jump in a giant leaf pile. Enjoy one or all of these fall and friend inspired recipes!
One of Erin’s autumnal porch displays featuring local squash, pumpkins and mums
Since no one drops a bill at our table we easily lose track of time while we try to catch up since we last saw each other. There’s a certain perfection about the imperfection of the whole scene. The kids might show up cranky and hungry, but usually leave happy and muddy. The adults commiserate and laugh off life’s frustrations while cleaning up the kitchen together. Our hearts and bellies are full as we part ways and promise to send each other all the recipes for all the things. We admittedly might never remember to send them, but we’ll never forget how grateful we are for amazing friends and awesome local fare.
Andrea Murrell’s writing is inspired by nature and all the people she’s lucky to know and love. She especially enjoys exploring how connections between the natural world and local creatives shape the character of the region she’s so fortunate to call home.
