Dinner with Friends & Takeaway

We went out Saturday night to visit friends. My friend J, a fellow foodophile whom I worked with a few years ago and I have kept in touch through email and Facebook since I left the company, but haven't been in touch in person for a long time.

In the last year or so, I've had the experience with some dear friends I've not made the time to see as often as I'd have liked and one could say it's bitten me in the ass I've regretted that life can be too short. I have been trying hard to reconnect with those I've not been in touch with, a bit more.

J and his partner S live in a lovely home and had a fire going when we arrived to take a bit of chill out of the air. The air was fragrant with garlic and after initial greetings, we sat down to drinks and an appetizer that although I can't recall it completely it had a dill pesto - Yummy! - with a creamed egg topping on a crostini. It was a superb way to start a fantastic meal.'

When J and I worked together, I used to bring him eggs from the girls. These were eggs from my little girls...although I have one or two little silkie hens that still lay on occasion, mostly we are getting big eggs from my big chicken girls. As he always was, J was eggstatic that I brought him some eggcellent eggs along with the wine and beer we brought for sharing.

Dinner was a white sauce mushroom lasagna that melted in your mouth, shrimp scampi full of lemon with garlicy, crunchy panko bread crumbs and a side dish of a lentil casserole with a tomato base, onions, garlic and carrots. The three dishes were absolutely wonderful... I fell in love with the lentils. I'm going to try and get J to share that with us! We both agreed that lentils are an underused legume!



Dessert was a lemon mousse and Joanne who isn't a big lemon fan went back for seconds. It was like a light fresh cloud of a lemon merangue pie without the crust...fresh whipped cream and the dainty texture of fresh lemon zest added such an authenticity that it was the perfect ending to such a spectacular dinner.

It was so good to catch up on things and talk about food with such an intensity that I don't often get a chance to do in person with others who are as obsessed with food as I am. Life is good when you slow down and take time to spend it with those you really care about!

Guess what I had for dinner last night? The same thing as Saturday night! J and S sent us home with all the dishes from dinner! It was just awesome to have the pleasure a second time! And you know what they say about a dish the next day...it only gets better when the flavors marry! J can cook for me any time! Thanks buddy!