Why We're Planning To Keep A 'Dinner Party Diary' Post-Quarantine
We first heard of the idea of keeping a “dinner party diary” after one of our favorite newsletters, The Snoozeletter, pointed out an article from Quartzy in which the writer became inspired to jot down memories from dinner parties they’d hosted. Considering Darby and I have started creating our own holiday meals and memories together, we were also inspired by the idea of keeping a journal to recall details about the day’s events — in a much more personal, heartfelt way than Instagram ever could. And now that the thought of hosting a dinner party seems more sacred than ever before, it's one of the many things we're looking forward to doing post-quarantine.
I used the downtime during quarantine to read the book the article mentioned. It's called "Life Is Meals," and it's a great little book full of memories, recipes and facts and history about food and meals eaten in the past.
Our search began with the perfect notebook for housing such memories, recipes and more, which we actually found online at Urban Outfitters. The notebook is full of blank lined pages that are just begging to be collaged in, jotted on, and knowing us — spilled on — as we cook.
Unfortunately, this version is actually sold out at the moment, but there are other versions you can shop online, too. There are super cute personalized options on Etsy — take this one, for example:
Personalized Wooden Cookbook, $37.99, Etsy
Before quarantine, we got together to kick-off our "dinner party diary" and wrote about and collaged photos from Thanksgiving 2018 — considering it was the first we celebrated together in New York. We plan on going back through the holidays we've hosted since as well as all of our future dinner parties together. We might slip a few quarantine recipe discoveries in there, too!
This way, we can always remember the recipes we fixed, start to remember our favorites and always have a place to return whenever we need to remember the feeling that came along with Thanksgiving and Christmas 2019, for example.
Obviously, we’re huge fans of both food and writing and of course, gathering together. And we have a feeling that making a scrapbooking experience out of these memories will only make the holidays that much more special.
If you’re interested in the idea of chronicling your family recipes and more — we highly recommend you check out the article, the book and even give it a try for yourself.
And if you’re in need of any recipe inspiration — check out our posts about our mom’s sausage and gravy and biscuits recipe. Consider it a gift from our family to yours!
Enjoy!
— Labels and Lacquer girls
Images: Wix (1); Urban Outfitters (1); Etsy (1)