THE STATE OF THE TABLE ADDRESS

Over the past year, while we've been trucking along with this idea we've hatched, a lot has come more into focus about who we are and who we are not. We welcome your questions, always, but here I will answer a few of my own, which I've been asking myself repeatedly. 

What ARE we? As our path has turned this way and that, from Private Table to Community Table, the one thing that has remained our mainstay, well, it's the five of us. Our family. What we offer each time we create an evening of togetherness and beauty, it's an extension of our family's brand of hospitality and is marked by our natural warmth and affection for one another. It's a family supper with friends and strangers.

What are we not? There are several unconventional dining options that have launched in Nashville recently, and it's lovely and exciting to witness the creativity of like-minded folks and to support what they're building. But one thing we've come to understand about ourselves is that we are not a pop-up restaurant. We are not a supper club. We are not caterers. We are not your usual event planners. Those might be the easiest things to which you -- and we, really -- might be able to compare Twelve at the Table, but it's about so much more than the food or any solitary piece of the full picture. It's a comprehensive experience, an evening full of festivity and connection, beginning with an earnest cocktail gathering and taking up a total of about four hours of your life, where you enjoy a dreamy atmosphere and a full feast with 11 other diners. It's about a slow pace, an honestly delicious meal and a spirit of intimacy.

When is our next public event, so that all of these fine souls on our mailing list can actually have a chance to experience all that we're describing to them? There will not be a dependable monthly dinner. Scheduling is erratic, you can count on it. The way we've figured that works best for we five is that if we are not hired for a private event in any given month, we will offer that date up as a Community Table. As soon as we have determined that, we will send an invitation to our audience. We also have a policy that, unless all five of us are fully available on a given weekend, we will not attempt to produce something that we know full well requires all of the five's particular giftings.

Where on earth are these next evenings going to take place? And will we serve a number that is not twelve? You may not know the locale of a given Community Table until two days prior. (Exciting, isn't it?...we are wide open to your suggestions, by the way.) You may or may not get to even read the menu before you sign up. So much of what we do is built on whim and intuition -- our creativity flows more freely with a good dose of license, so you'll want to come in a spirit of happy abandon. Nor will there ever be more than twelve diners at a given evening. We value and protect that very perfect number for many reasons, which you'll come to understand once you've tasted the goodness. 

When am I going to write our next email? Until we have something noteworthy to share, we most likely won't send you an email. We like you too much to fill up your already full inboxes. But when you do receive a note or an invitation, please know that it is carefully wrought and crafted with a desire to inspire and please. 

What do people think of this? Well, we hope you're intrigued, interested and all-in. We hope you'll come join us one of these nights, and we hope you'll experience beauty and friendship, and that you'll be a little bit changed by it.

SPICY CHICKPEA AND [OTHER-VEGETABLE] SALAD

I've got a delicate little etched coupe of rosé poured, Josh Ritter is singing "joy to you, baby," and the sun has gone down but I can still detect an orangeish glow reflected in the skin of the Airstream in the back yard. The blue shadows make it even more lovely. It's Monday evening, the cupboards and fridge shelves are getting bare, and it's time to get creative -- do some spring cleaning with the provisions.

So I thought I'd share something I just threw together in a tall-sided glass bowl, in quite an honest and higgledy-piggledy fashion. Seriously, all of these ingredients were just sitting in the cool or the dark, waiting to be utilized. Add what you want or what you have, take away what you don't like or don't have. It's really that simple! 

a 15 ounce can of chickpeas, rinsed

a 15 ounce can of petite diced tomatoes, drained

a can of whole green chiles, drained and chopped

three spring onions (or scallions), all cut-up-like

four ribs of celery, chopped

a quarter of a green pepper, chopped

the better part of a red fresno chile, diced (seeded if you're afeared of heat)

a few shakes from the bottle of red wine vinegar

one teaspoon ground cumin

one teaspoon ground coriander

sea salt and fresh cracked pepper, to taste

Mixy-mixy, then I threw in a handful of wild arugula I scored at Saturday's farmer's market. It's spicier than arugula has the right to be. And I didn't even add olive oil, but if you'd like that silky roundness it offers, then please. Be my guest. I'll be enjoying mine alongside some turkey meatballs with fried onions and sinus-clearing French mustard, and of course, a bit more rosé. Monday deserves celebration just as much as those other days do. Now get chopping.

APRIL COMMUNITY TABLE

Share this:       Greetings, fine people! Giddy. Rhubarb is popping up in the markets, slender and bright. So are fresh peas and asparagus, lithe new onions, bunches of purply radishes and beets, too. Our thoughts are turning to orchid-pink buds and light green in the trees, warmth on our arms and tiny, flavor-full strawberries to top and pop. In the spirit of this fine season's arrival (hurry up, already) and in celebration of its tender flavors, we are happy to announce our next Community Table on Saturday, April 13 at 6:00pm.  This table will be set  in a very special location, a private farm out in Leiper's Fork where Twelve at the Table had its beginning. You might even get to hear a few stories of that moonlit night when it all began, and there might even be a little bit of an extra special course, inspired by our love of fair Spring, to celebrate the significance of our return to this enchanted piece of land.  The suggested donation for the evening is $90 (+winebottle) per diner. Make haste! Twelve seats sold in 24 hours last month. The menu will be revealed on the evening of the event, so bring your love of surprises and a readiness to feast. To reserve your place at the table, drop us a note attwelveatthetable@gmail.com with your name and the number in your party. We'll then send you a confirmation email containing a link to a page where you can make your payment in advance, then your reservation will be complete. We hope to see you out on the fresh green lawn, and we're saying our prayers far in advance for a breezy, perfect night sky and the company of some hoot owls and shooting stars.   Now, we wish you a delightful weekend, hopefully full of quality time with good people, maybe some Vivaldi with your Sunday lunch, a plate of perfectly classic deviled eggs and many rabbit- and egg-shaped chocolate bits and bobs (and jellybeans, always jellybeans.) Let's welcome the season with some luxury.  See you at the Table, Evie, Angela, Joshua, Marty and John

TWELVE AT THE TABLE AT THE NASHVILLE CREATIVITY SUMMIT

The city of Nashville is home to a marvelous creative and educational entity, The Skillery. If you don't know about the Skillery and its offerings, pay a visit to that website and do some initial learning, then get involved and do some more learning via their beautiful connective network. 

The fine folks at The Skillery and some equally fine sponsors are making possible a weekend event called The Nashville Creativity Summit. Alongside several other creative folks, Evie will be presenting a 20-slides-20-seconds-each, Pecha Kucha-style talk on Saturday, so we'd sure love to see some familiar faces if you want to learn a bit more about the inner workings of the little machine we call Twelve at the Table. Surely some of you are even a bit curious about how we do what we do? We're just as curious as you are. Curious, it turns out, is a good way to be.

Get out and get in the creative mix, friends!

TEQUILA CARAMEL SAUCE

as featured during the dessert course at our October Community Table and adapted from a recipe by the incomparable Barefoot Contessa.

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/3 cup water

1 1/4 cups heavy cream

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/4 cup gold tequila 

2 tablespoon salted butter

1 teaspoon kosher salt  

Mix the water and sugar in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan. Don't stir....unless you're like me and, regardless of how many times you're told not to, you can't stand it and you just have to help it along. It's very much like trying to resist the urge to bite into a Tootsie Pop. I can't do it. Best of luck to you.

Cook over low heat for 5 to 10 minutes, until the sugar dissolves. Increase the heat to medium and let it bubble uncovered until the sugar turns a golden chestnut color (about 350 degrees F on a candy thermometer), about 5 to 7 minutes, gently swirling the pan to stir the mixture.

Don't take your eyes off the mixture at the end. It can and will go from that perfect amber caramel to an acrid-smelling, burnt mess very quickly. 

Remove from heat, stand back to avoid hurtful splatters and slowly add the cream, vanilla and tequila. Don't worry when the cream bubbles and spits like mad and the caramel seizes up, all hard-candy-like.

Just simmer over low heat until dissolved and stir until the sauce is smooth, about 2 minutes more.

Add the butter and salt. Spoon out a bit, allow to cool before tasting for salty perfection. Allow to cool to room temperature, for about 3-4 hours -- it will thicken as it sits.

Spoon onto a plate beneath a lime custard tart and top with fresh whipped cream and lime zest (as pictured), or drizzle it way too generously over ice cream, or dip in a tart Granny Smith apple wedge, or put it in a jar in the fridge and plunge in with a spoon for a cold, chewy, caramelly midnight snack-treat.