Good Food, Good Friends

To be honest, I could not have had a more perfect dinner tonight. Granted, it required me deboning a rabbit yesterday, and then preparing many different ingredients today for the stew, but it was so incredibly worth it.

And this is where I am particularly grateful for my fiancee's sister. She gave us a vanilla bean--which apparently are not cheap, especially good ones--and showed me step-by-step how to make the creme brulee. It was so awesome, and I learned wonderful tips about making finicky desserts like custard.

But the dinner itself was just perfect. We started with a salad that the friends brought, which ended up being perfect for the meal and was incredibly delicious. And then we went for the stew, which I was eternally grateful for adding potatoes and carrots to, otherwise there would have never been 4 bowls of it. And, of course, the desert was really hard to top. In fact, the friends who were over were concerned about how they would beat the stew and dessert. It made me happy, and made my fiancee happy, as well.

In light of such a glorious evening, spending hours with friends, talking about anything all while enjoying good food, it just makes a person not too concerned about the inevitable weight can that is to be achieved by all this. No worries on my part. I know I worked out hard this morning, and that a person who likes food as much as I do deserves a creme brulee every once in a while. Perhaps even again on Monday when we have another with the beuf bourguignon.