Entertaining

I really enjoy having friends over to eat, stay the weekend, jam, or just sit and talk. One thing I love about French culture is that they often invite friends over for lengthy meals, and they pull out all the stops. They can make some pretty elaborate meals for guests, and if you're invited, you better plan on telling the sitter you'll be home around midnight or later. The meal is several courses and quite drawn out, yes, but the conversation is what takes hours and hours. I love it. If there is one thing I could borrow from French culture  and have all Americans adopt, it would be that: sitting around the table for hours.

Tonight I invited some friends from the French department, and I decided to cook an all French meal (except for the appetizers - hummus, cucumbers, and chex mix). I wouldn't cook French food for people unless I was pretty sure they were going to like it, so I took advantage of having a group of francophiles over to experiment a bit. It was really simple, but it turned out nice. It cost me a bit more than I was planning (let's just say that I spent 15 bucks on cheese alone), but it was definitely worth it.

We had "salade au chèvre chaud" or warm goat cheese salad, and "soupe de courgette à la vache qui rit", or zucchini soup with laughing cow cheese in it. The soup looked like soup, but I thought the salads turned out really pretty. I made a simple mustard vinaigrette with walnut oil, dijon, and red wine vinegar, mixed in some dark greens and minced shallots, sprinkled some walnuts on top, and topped it all with some thin slices of artisanal bread with sliced goat cheese on top that I broiled until the cheese started to brown a bit. Matt's wife is Maurician and said the dressing reminded her of home. It was my first time making it, and it went over pretty well.

It was a fun evening, and it only took about an hour to do every last dish by hand! My roommate walked in just as I was washing the last dish. It was like the whole thing never happened.