What I Like

We had dinner with some friends at the house last week. It was a great evening. These were the things that made it wonderful:

• Everyone helped by bringing a portion of the dinner.
  
• I got to cook with a friend. I love doing that. Stay tuned for my community kitchen party, coming up in December, if I get my act together.
  
• The food somehow all went together, like we had God was on our side.
  
• Dinner was a colourful array, diverse shapes and textures of:

• blue corn chips with guacamole
• lemon-rosemary chicken skewers
• tilapia fillets with chili-lime butter
• barbecued corn with chipotle butter
• mango-red pepper salad
• buttered green beans
• honeyed carrot rounds
  
• boiled new potatoes with chipotle butter
• chocolate mouse cake
  

• All of our friends like cilantro.
• Dinner was a slow, relaxed affair that lasted from 6:30 to 11:30, on a week night! I am reading a book that praises Slow Food dinners, ones that start at 10:00 pm and lasts till 1:30 am. I am going to cultivate Slow Food dinners.
• We had an unexpected guest from France join us last minute, straight off the plane.
• One of our friends toasted to welcome our guest from France.
  
• We cleaned our house for the dinner!
• The coffee machine died right in the middle of a brew and we improvised to make coffee, just like camping. Today, we replaced this 15-year-old coffee maker. And I am even thinking of replacing our 20-year-old microwave oven.
  
• The women gathered in the garden after dinner. Just like in Victorian times or in the Middle East when men and women gather after dinner in separate rooms to do their own bonding.
  
• But most of all, I like my friends and enjoy their company. The Man said after, when he sees his friends, he wants to spend a whole week with them. I know exactly how he feels.
  

It's been rainy and cold the last few days. I'm thinking, regular dinners with friends would surely warm us all up.