This year, our sixty-first, my husband became faculty-in-residence at North Village, and we moved into the dorm. Technically it’s not a dorm, it’s a residence hall. People sleep in a dorm, but they share life in a residence hall.

Forty-one years ago this week I moved into a dorm, the basement of Kinsolving Dormitory at the University of Texas. There was a lot of sharing that went on there. Kinsolving had accepted more students than they had room for. So we had the option of living in the basement, army barracks style, at a reduced rate, or finding another place to live. Because I am a frugal person I moved into the basement with 30 other girls.

We did share a lot–space, privacy, the bathroom, cartoons pasted to the walls of the bathroom, books, time, stories, life. Although Kinsolving had a good dining hall where I ate most of the time, we didn’t share many meals down in the basement. The only approved cooking apparatus was a popcorn popper, which was good for hot tea (I wasn’t a coffee drinker yet), Lipton’s cup o’ soup, and hot Dr. Pepper. (No really, you should try it. With a slice of lemon, it’s great on a cold afternoon.)

Sharing meals is a great way to develop community. Many of the students at North Village have access to kitchens in their rooms or as a community kitchen. So I thought I would post some recipes. If you have any recipes or stories that go with them, please share them with me and I will post them for all to enjoy.

So here we go on this new adventure…