Thursday, I had an incredible dinner wtih friends. The Thomas's invited myself and the Family over to their apartment for dinner. We all jumped at the chance to hangout with such an amazing couple. Their beautiful apartment, on the luxurious West 87th Street, was a cozy escape from the winter cold.
The center piece of the living room was this beautiful custom wall piece. "Mighty Oaks" comes from the saying "Mighty oaks from little acorns grow". The saying has personal meaning to the couple, so they decided to have the letters custom made and covered with a map of NYC. I love decor accent pieces that are both meaningful and ascetically intriguing.
We each brought a cheese to start. The Family, of course, coordinated to ensure we had no cheese repeats. I picked up a sharp Beermeister, Mer grabbed a Brie with peppercorn, and Bryan stopped by Eataly for a creamy Kunik. We paired the cheese with crackers and buttered toasts. We also supplied wine for the dinner, not a difficult task for this crew.
I'm in love with Mer's aztec pants.
The table was set and ready to host.
laughs upon laughs upon laughs....
Anthony and Jess cooked up a hearty beef stew that was served over rice with string beans and salad on the side. It was melt in your mouth delicious.
I'm pretty sure we all had seconds.
For dessert, we had a King Cake. After doing some research, I learned that King Cakes will look and taste different depending on their place of origin. Ours was from the French Boulanger, Maison Kayser. You may associate King Cake with Mardi Gras, but those are usually more colorful and cake like. Ours was an almond flavored pastry dough, light and fluffy, with just a slight crunch. In each cake the baker hides a little plastic trinket, traditionally it is a baby Jesus.
The superstition is, whoever gets the piece of cake with the trinket, will be the next to get married. Funny enough, no one ended up getting the trinket on the first go. It was comfortably nestled in the last uneaten piece. Not big on superstitions, I decided to claim the trinket (a plastic baguette) and the crown for myself.
The meal was delicious and the company was even better. We laughed until we couldn't laugh anymore and went home full in many different ways.
Dinner with friends is always a good option. Make sure you set aside time for the people you care about and want to invest in. I hope you'll make plans this week to get together with someone you've been meaning to catch up with.
ps...sorry for all the pictures. Too many good ones to leave any out!
d.eileen
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