COVID-19 does not need to prevent you from having a fun dinner party with friends. I can't believe it took COVID-19 for me to stumble upon this idea, but using easily accessible technology, you can safely (and virtually) welcome guests to your dinner table.

A few months ago, my sister and her husband made pupusas for the first time. They loved this new food and they were sure our family would love it, too. Pupusas are a traditional dish from El Salvador made of small corn flour pancakes filled with your choice of meat, beans, and cheese. In the past, our families would wait until the next time we got together in Virginia or Pennsylvania to share a new recipe. But this time, since we weren't sure when that could happen, we planned a Virtual Dinner Party.

My sister sent us the pupusa recipe in advance. We agreed that we would sit down for dinner at 6 pm on a specified Saturday night. My husband has a free Zoom account, so he sent my sister an invitation to join us for a dinner gathering at 6 pm. Facetime would also work well for this. Just be sure to test out a spot on the table where you can put your laptop, iPad, or phone, so you and those around your table are visible.

Our Virtual Dinner Party was lively! My sister and her husband liked seeing what we thought of pupusas. They were fantastic and we enjoyed learning to make them as a family. At one point, we realized our growing teenage son had eaten 13 of them! It truly felt like we had all had dinner together!

We've also seen a version of this through our online store because many work conferences and meetings have been cancelled. Companies are ordering one of our meals for each of their employees and they are having dinner together while spread all over the country.

A friend from church told us his neighborhood coordinated a homemade pizza night where everyone was given a pizza kit and they made dinner together using Zoom. I loved this idea!

There is still no substitute for being in the presence of friends and family, but a Virtual Dinner Party is definitely a way to turn this time of lemons into lemonade.