The first pan of tender, crumbling coffee cake vanished within an hour — and that was before the bulk of guests arrived at Waterman Residence’s weekly open-house tea. The blackberry tea disappeared even faster than the cake.
“I greatly enjoy Waterman teas,” said sophomore Josiah Kollmeyer, a regular attendee. “It’s a fun place to come. There’s nice conversation and tasty food.”
Tonight it was coffee cake. Last week the women served cinnamon sugar pull-apart bread. Before that, the low and sturdy coffee table of Waterman has supported such delights as white chocolate cranberry scones, apple tarts, snickerdoodles, layer cakes, baklava, and apple cake with walnuts and a caramel drizzle.
“I think food in general is essential to creating community,” said Shannon Taylor ’09, a former Waterman resident. “The process of making it brings Waterman women together both because they enjoy fellowship while they cook, and because it is a gift they can offer others.”
Taylor and her two former roommates, Cara Valle ‘10 and Erin Zoutendam ‘10, used to hold teas in Valle and Zoutendam’s room in Olds Residence beginning in 2006.
“When I, and later Cara and Erin, moved to Waterman, we decided Waterman`s lovely living room and kitchen offered the perfect opportunity to continue Tuesday tea and its fellowship,” Shannon Taylor said.
Along with tea, they also provided baked goods that drew attendees from across campus.
Senior Bonnie Cofer was one such freshman who came for the food, stayed for the friendship, and much to her surprise, is now one of the hosts as well as a resident assistant at Waterman.
“I never imagined I could get into Waterman or host the teas,” Cofer said. “It’s really wonderful. Everyone bakes, and it’s always delicious.”
“Compared to the cramped rooms in Olds, a big, orange living room full of baked goods just becomes this haven of happiness and food,” said junior Annie Taylor, another Waterman resident.
Waterman women emit a very hospitable nature and host the open-house teas as a way of giving back, said senior Ashley Baumann, a four-year Waterman resident.
“And we just love to bake things,” Baumann said. “There’s always something going on in the kitchen.”
“Always!” Annie Taylor said. “I’ll come back from class and the whole house will smell like chocolate, and a plate of something tempting will be cooling on the counter.”
While coffee cake was served in the living room over the ebb and flow of conversation — ranging from the details of John Derbyshire’s speech, “We are Doomed,” to the generalities of ancient Greek literature — a plate of biscuits and a pile of cookies sat conspicuously on the kitchen counter.
“If you spend much time in Waterman, you quickly realize that its kitchen is its heart,” Shannon Taylor said. “Rinsing off a dish or making a cup of tea inevitably (and delightfully) becomes a prolonged visit with a friend.”
The kitchen was also the location of “Breakfasts with Jesus,” a Waterman tradition from to 2009-2011, where the residents gathered each morning to eat their individual breakfasts together. Each Friday, one of the residents would make breakfast for the entire house, Baumann said.
“We had a really close bond. This year, everyone is just too busy, but the teas continue,” Baumann said.
“The legacy of baking continues because the women in Waterman intentionally pass it on. As the older women in Waterman model this tradition to the younger, they are gifting them with a way to support, encourage, and build community,” Shannon Taylor said. “Waterman`s baking tradition is inclusive: it spreads out, invites in, and thus continues through generations.”
The legacy is witnessed in the perennial teas, but also the stand mixer in the kitchen — clean but clearly well-used —, the abundance of cutting boards, cookie sheets, and carefully-balanced stacks of etched glass teacups, all bequeathed by former residents.
The most cherished of these heirlooms, tangible manifestations of Waterman’s cultural legacy, is the slim red binder nestled on a shelf in the dining room It contains recipes passed down from generation to generation of Waterman residents, begun by Mandi Swenson and Emily Droege in 2006.
Droege’s chocolate chip cookie recipe, dubbed by Cofer as “ridiculously amazing,” and Swenson’s “famous curry with chicken, yields 4 – 6 servings depending on number of boys present” still warm Waterman residents and guests alike.
“Waterman feels more like a house than a dorm and draws to it those who appreciate that atmosphere,” Shannon Taylor said. “Waterman’s real kitchen is a blessing to those who love cooking.”
It is a blessing clearly seen in the vibrant orange living room, brimming with conversation, the vapors of a fourth pot of tea, and the crumbs of a second coffeecake.
vcooney@hillsdale.edu
