Dining Divas Make Dining at Home a New Holiday Tradition

BY LISA KAMPETER

It’s amazing how the year just flew by.   The Dining Divas started a new tradition what seemed like just yesterday, and 12 months later, it was that time again.  Time for our progressive dinner.

Lisa Kampeter photo**

Last year, we enjoyed incredible food.  Lots of it.  Too much of it that we were miserable.  This year, we changed things up a bit.  We settled on traveling to only two homes for a couple reasons.  Less food and more time to play games.

The Creative Diva decided this year that we’d theme the food.  We focused on only appetizers and desserts, and everyone was to bring food representing their nationality.  It’s amazing how the Super Tan Diva suddenly became Mexican.  It’s also amazing when we realized that there are Germans everywhere.  And from the lack of recipes we found, they also must eat out way too much.  So we improvised.

The Italian Diva brought meatballs and a cake from a bakery.  The word “bakery” ends in a vowel so that must mean that the cake is Italian.  The Greek Diva decided to represent her other half, the Redneck side, and she brought a Derby Pie.  We assumed that’s because she and her Redneck friends used to get sloshed at the Kentucky Derby and that’s why she brought a Derby Pie.

We learned that the Black Forest actually exists in Germany, and “one of the many” German Divas brought a Black Forest cake.  Another German Diva brought Potato Pancakes and Lebkuchen, a gingerbread sort of cookie.   Our French Diva decided to bake a cake.  Baking is foreign to her so for that, we gave her a pass on not creating something French.  We were really hoping for Rookies French fries.

Since the Newlywed Diva’s discovery of “Scattergories,” any extra time to play the game is time well spent.  She’s competitive and loves to play games, but she doesn’t like to lose.  And she doesn’t mind throwing game pieces at her competitors.  We also recommend “Apples to Apples,” a great game to play with people you know.   Table talk is recommended, and the Newlywed Diva is an expert at that.  Of course, she won again, and she continues to remind us.

Typically, the Dining Divas outings end after two or three hours.  This night, it didn’t end until after two in the morning.  Let’s just say, we found way more things to talk about and way more things to laugh about that it was worth staying up way past our bedtimes.

Just like the year, the evening flew by for us.  We can’t wait for next year and maybe a new theme.   Maybe costumes…representing our nationalities.  Bad idea.  Too many Germans.

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