Dinner with Friends...and a Book

I made dinner for friends the other night.......I made a salad with cucumber, tomatoes, feta cheese. I made another salad with greens, blood oranges, pomegranate seeds, goat cheese and roasted pine nuts. I made Musakhkan, a meal that has flat bread, baked chicken with onions and Sumac....and also rice with golden raisins and grated carrots.

We drank wine and talked about our families and our teens that will be going off to college next year. We talked about how some of us are dating, or just breaking off a relationship, or not....new work opportunities, travel plans, home renovations and......we talked about our book. After all, that is the excuse, and the pleasure that has been bringing us all together once a month for over 13 years.....

We talked about Mornings in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa this time. It is a beautifully written and very moving story about life for a family in Palestine. We came away realizing there are many perceptions of events in the world and that truth depends so often upon where one is standing at any particular moment......

We also came away knowing there are many challenges in life, but there are ways to make life a little sweeter....with friends, with understanding....and of, course a little dessert.....