Our lives are so busy these days, and so often lived virtually, that we’ve lost this beautiful tradition of gathering friends around the dinner table. To help me revive this practice, I’ve invited Anna Watson Carl, an expert dinner party thrower onto our podcast today.   Anna is a cook and writer, and the author of “The Yellow Table: A Celebration of Everyday Gatherings.” Her writing has appeared in Food & Wine, Travel+Leisure, and Tasting Table just to name a few. A former private chef, she has cooked for countless dinner parties around the U.S. and in France. Today, she lives in Nashville with her husband and two young children.   In the episode, she shares: Her go-to 4 part dinner party menu Tips for making the evening stress-free Gathering people around your table even when you have kids How to make the evening special even when the food is simple Her new dinner party philosophy   Hopefully it’ll inspire you to invite a friend or 2 over!   For all the links in today’s episode, head to www.cooksmarts.com/podcast/26   Want to be a super supporter of the show and home cooking? Please tell a friend about our podcast and leave us a review on Apple Podcast (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/in-the-kitchen-with-cook-smarts/id1454754429?mt=2). If we read your review on a future podcast, you’ll win a Cook Smarts tote bag!