Home Cooked Meals at School

Last semester I moved into an off-campus house with a few of my friends. While it was great living in the fraternity complex with brothers around all the time, a house definitely has its advantages. One of the many benefits included a well-stocked, relatively large kitchen. Almost right away, my roommates and I started taking turns cooking for the four of us. We found it much easier to cook for four people rather than just one, and it turned out to be much more cost efficient to have communal groceries. Most of the people who come over find it a little odd that we share food, but it works well for us. We enjoy eating together on a regular basis. I like our set-up because it reminds me a bit of home and it’s just a lot of fun to cook. Sometimes meetings come up so whoever is making dinner that night tries to work around everyone’s schedules so we can all eat around the same time.

We started another tradition at the house: Sunday night family dinners. Our motley crew of close friends is composed of sophomores, juniors, and seniors who are a mixture of scholars, athletes, and Greek members. The eleven of us would gather at my house Sunday evenings to spend time together and enjoy good food. We all took turns making dinner to help split the cost of feeding that many people and to try different foods. We have cooked a variety of things like beef chili, grilled salmon, lasagna, spaghetti and meatballs, grilled chicken, shrimp scampi, and more. Salad, bread, and/or vegetables usually accompany the main courses to round out the meal. Before we eat at the same table, we all hold hands and say some kind of prayer. It isn’t so that anyone is particularly religious but to symbolize being together and being a family of sorts. I’m hoping that once school starts again, we will fall back into the habit of making home cooked family meals at school.