Your City Suppers!

On Sunday night, neighbors across the city opened their homes and invited each other in for dinner and conversations as part of the first Indiana Humanities and City Gallery sponsored city-wide City Supper. Here are some of the evening's stories.

Tonight we hosted what we hope will be the first of many city suppers! This adventure started as so many do: my husband came into the kitchen to tell me “honey, I signed you up to cook for the neighbors.”  Having lived in Indiana less than a year, our family has been hard at work trying to become true blue Hoosiers, so I suppose embracing Hoosier hospitality was a task that had to happen eventually.

We invited all of our neighbors on our street expecting at least a few to decline. But nope! We crammed 13 adults and 14 children into our 500 square foot living area for a meal of chili, potato soup, mac and cheese and salad (with hotdogs for the kids).  Loud does not begin to describe the sound in our home as the kids tore around out the back door then back in through the front as the adults caught up with one another discussing how prepared we were for the coming winter.  It was chaos!

However, we got everyone to settle down long enough to discuss the purpose of our meal, explain the cards that were stacked on each of the three tables set up in our living room and express our hope that one of our neighbors would take up the torch behind us and host supper at their home during the winter so that we can keep our neighborly spirit alive.  Everyone enjoyed reading the Indiana trivia questions and when we ran out of them we started a lively game of trivial pursuit over the screams of our children.

One of our guests happens to be a member of the board of directors for Downtown Noblesville.  We got to hear her tell us the importance of supporting our local businesses and why its important to have a revitalized downtown area as opposed to just growth throughout the city. It was a great look at our civic duties as citizens of our town as well as of Indiana.

The experience was all that much better as we had a friend staying with us this weekend who is from our home state of Arizona and is here on a house hunting trip, hoping to move into our neighborhood. He got to see the warmth and friendliness of Indiana first hand.  He got to meet all the people who would be here to greet him when he returns with his family in January.

All in all it was an amazing evening with lots of fun had by all and we are so excited to do it again!!!

Katie Ruvalcaba

Our neighborhood Sunday Supper has become a beloved tradition in our household over the past few years so we were excited to participate in City Suppers!  The group has evolved over time, from busting-at-the-seams to cozy.  Regardless of the size and format, it is something we look forward to all week.  For our family it is a time to slow down, enjoy good food and catch up with friends and neighbors from around Fall Creek Place.

The cooler weather meant a big pot of soup and mulled cider were in order.  Hungarian goulash is one of our favorites and easy to make for a group.  We were thankful to have some hosting help from Ellen and Andrew since two small children make it challenging to prepare a meal and keep the house from succumbing to the tornado of destruction that an almost three-year-old can create.  A hearty salad and growler of home-brew rounded out the meal.

It had been a few weeks since we had all been together so it was fun to reconnect and welcome a new addition to the group. Good conversation and fellowship were the highlight of the evening.  As always, it was fun to see the little ones play together and enjoy the sense of community that a shared meal creates. With full stomachs and a few yawns from the little ones we said our goodbyes; until next time that is...

Jill and Chris Hagan