I wish I did! It’s a rare occurrence when I have a home cooked meal with friends. When I do have dinner with my friends, it’s normally at a restaurant. The main home-cooked meals I have outside my home are in either with my fiancé’s family or with one of my parents. Back in NY, we have a few foodie friends and they invited us over. When we did have home-cooked meals with them, it was a treat.

And so when I read about Sarah Grey’s “Friday Night Meatballs” tradition, I fell in love. Sarah and her husband were feeling disconnected from their community and social circle, and finding themselves spending more time on the couch with Netflix than they would have liked. On her 33rd birthday, she went on her Facebook wall and wrote:

“So here’s what Joe and I have decided to do, in my 33rd year, to make our lives happier: we are instituting a new tradition we call Friday Night Meatballs. Starting next Friday, we’re cooking up a pot of spaghetti and meatballs every Friday night and sitting down at the dining room table as a family—along with anyone else who’d like to join us. Friends, neighbors, relatives, clients, Facebook friends who’d like to hang out in real life, travelers passing through: you are welcome at our table. We’ll just ask folks to let us know by Thursday night so we know how many meatballs to make. You can bring something, but you don’t have to. Kids, vegetarians, gluten-free types, etc. will all be taken care of. The house will be messy. There might be card and/or board games. There might be good Scotch. You might be asked to read picture books. You might make new friends. We’ll just have to find out. This is our little attempt to spend more time with our village. You’re invited.”

She was overwhelmed with likes and visitors, and eighteen months later, she’s created a personal family tradition. But she’s also starting a movement of sorts. Check out her website, FridayNightMeatballs.com.

Once I’m more settled and have a bigger place, I’d love to try something like this out. Would you ever host your own regular dinner? Or do you already?