There isn't much in life that compares to the ultimate pleasure that is food (well for me anyway). This is not to deny the other great pleasures in the world, but merely show how much I love eating delicious meals, which is made better when accompanied by a great atmosphere, a wood fire, wine, and above all - company.
"Find me a man who's interesting enough to have dinner with and I'll be happy" is what Lauren Bacall once said, and I cannot agree more. Lucky for me I'm in love with a man who is a mighty fine cook and double lucky because I got to spend last Saturday night hosting a dinner party with many interesting people - I was more than happy, I was chuffed and overjoyed!
To set the scene, Dr Love and I spent the day setting up for the night. This was a night for firsts - first time we had used our dining room and dining table actually for dining, first time to use the china given to us at our wedding and the first time for some of our wonderful friends to meet.
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| Fire kindling for our fireplace |
The company was international in flavour, full of different accents, stories and swapping of cultural superstitions (such as in Armenian culture, if one is traveling for awhile, to throw water on your home's door step to clear your path for a safe return ... OK I digress) and full of lots of laughs. Here are the global cultures that were represented at our own UN table... Armenian, Persian, South African, Italian, English, Spanish, Peruvian and Australian. Yep, one of the many things I love about Canberra is it is a melting pot of smart people brought here from around the world.
Anyway, back to the food. So Dr Love prepared an amazing five-course meal, accompanied by matching beverages. Here is the menu:
1. Cicchetti - Polenta with various toppings, fried olives stuffed with jalapeños and pork pie (for the Gordy in our company)2. Entree - Charcutere (which is an Italian platter full of various antipasto, cured meats, cheeses etc), fresh bread with olive oil and balsamic
3. Main - Champagne risotto (my personal favourite), lamb cutlets and a side of green salad
4. Dessert - Strawberry millefulle
5. Supper - roasted chestnuts, cheese platter, nuts, tea and coffee
Here are some pics - please note I did not capture every course, as I was too busy feasting my eyes and eating!
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| Clean up |
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| Was worth it! |
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| French Earl Grey tea from T2 |
Words cannot describe how amazing this Dinner Party was. It was worth working into the wee hours of the morning to clean the dishes. I haven't had that much fun in ages and I hope we do it again soon.
Miss I. summed it up nicely: "Grazie mille ragazzi. E. stato buonissimo! Un bacio" Which roughly means thanks a thousand young ones, it was very good! Kisses
This post has made me hungry again, so I'm off for another snack!
See ya,
M x
What a beautiful and seamless menu, for some reason I've always been terrified of hosting dinner parties but I think you may have inspired me. Might need to borrow Dr Love though!
ReplyDeleteThanks Rose! I think it is all in the prep and being organised. Something no doubt your mum has taught you!
ReplyDeleteHost one at the end of Ramadan and invite us! ;-) x
What an amazing menu! I love all your dinner party 'firsts'. So fun xxx
ReplyDeleteAs one of the lucky people to attend this dinner party of 'firsts' I have to say it was incredible! And Miss Mmmm you sure do capture it in that first line, food and wine shared with great company is nothing short of bliss!
ReplyDeleteRose you should get onto dinner parties, it's amazing the things you learn about people when you all sit down together and actually talk and listen to one another.
P.s I promise to host a Spanish dinner party on my return xo