OmaLeen’s verdant dinner is an amazing opportunity for women to make new friends, enjoy a delicious meal.

Bring together a group of women who have never met, add a delicious meal, and you have a verdant dinner.

By SARA VANDEN BERGE

Verdant: Covered with a thick, healthy natural growth. Lush, leafy, rich, fruitful, green, dense, productive.

I almost didn’t go.

It’s been a few busy weeks in the VB house and adding anything to an already packed schedule didn’t appeal to me.

But I couldn’t say no to my friend April, who was hosting one of OmaLeen’s verdant dinners at her lovely lakeside home in Granbury on Wednesday night.

So I paid for a seating, put on a pretty dress and headed out last night.

And WOW! I’m so glad I did.

Shannon Odom and her husband Austin own OmaLeen’s in Hico and she had the amazing idea to bring women together with a shared meal, wine and interesting conversation.

She named it “verdant dinner.”

The five-course meal prepared by Chef Shannon was fantastic; think honey toast, roasted beets, raviolo (cremini, braised swiss chard, ricotta, sun choke and Aleppo pepper), short ribs and tiramisu.

But as delicious as dinner was, it wasn’t the highlight of the evening.

The award for that went to the women who came to the verdant dinner, almost all of whom I had never meant.

There were women from Glen Rose, Weatherford and Comanche, and a few from Stephenville I don’t often see.

The conversation flowed as freely as the wine and it was a memorable night I won’t soon forget.

Shannon hosts a few of these dinners every spring and fall.

Keep an eye out for the next one and plan to go.

You won’t regret it.