sunday was a really good day

It started in the kitchen, and that's usually a good thing. Sarah stopped by in the early afternoon with a random awesome present (!). She saw this gorgeous photograph of a kitchen in Avignon, France, and decided to get it for me. The photographer is someone whose work Sarah (and I) love at a local shop in Ballard. We visited for awhile, I forced her to try random food bits, and then it was back to the kitchen for me and she left for home.

Jeff and I were lucky enough to have serenity_valley and str8ontilmornin come to visit us for dinner. While I didn't post about it (because I wanted to surprise them) there were months of Fantasy Menu Planning and obsessing. Because they are both such lovely foodies and because str8ontilmornin is a chef (and instructor at a culinary institute), I really wanted to do something special for them.

There were no full blown panic attacks, but I was a little, um, focused at points and I almost threw out the amuse 30 minutes before they were due to arrive because I wasn't sure it was going to work (Jeff convinced me to keep it). It was the only dish that I felt slightly obsessed about creating instead of stealing from a cookbook. The salad was also my own creation, but loosely based on this terrific salad Jeff once had at Crave. There was a second dessert course that flopped, so I eliminated it. And Jeff also obviously knows me a little too well, because when I'm preparing for a party, I tend to forget to eat all day. So when he went out to pick up a few things for me, he brought us back some lunch because he didn't want me to pass out before they arrived. I thought that was very sweet.

I was feeling extra bashful and because serenity_valley and str8ontilmornin are such dear people who instantly make you comfortable, I forget that we've only had the chance to hang out a couple of times and that I am basically intensely shy. But the minute they walked through the door, I remembered why I like them so damn much. They are just wonderfulness personified. They came bearing gifts--three amazing loaves of homemade bread as well as a beautiful jar of finishing salt from The Meadow.

( Le Menu et autre )