Friday, January 23, 2015

Italian night with friends

A few of my co-workers and I have been hanging out the last few months.  Typically, we meet for beers after a long shift.  Or, we met on New Year's Day to celebrate the one holiday that we all managed to not work.  At that meeting, we discussed wine education and having dinner at my place to feature a region.  Of course, I enjoy dining out.  I also enjoy entertaining at my house.  It would be uninterrupted and wine driven.
Wednesday we celebrated Italy.  I told Teo and Josh to come over at 6.  I had bought ciabatta, tomatoes, and olive mix.  Mostly, I planned on bringing the wine.  Josh would cook and Teo would accompany us.  Currently, she is in transition with jobs.  I could provide wine and/or food and not be concerned with if she did not bring wine.  It was about camaraderie.
I had cleaned my house, bought additional candles, a rug and a lamp.  My lighting in my rental is insufficient.  The overhead light is too much and my one lamp was not enough to light the kitchen and dining room table.  I wanted to make the room more hospitable.  At any rate, I thought my house looked nice.
I wanted a prosecco, a nebbiolo and another red wine.  I chose a sangiovese as the mid course wine and supplemented with a few additional wines.  All, in all, I had six bottles on hand and some limoncello.  I thought I would conclude the night with a digestif.
They arrived and Josh began preparing the first and second course.  He made spiedini--proscuitto and parmesean wrapped goods.  He prepped he roasted garlic and I opened the prosecco.  I only had the one white wine and so I chose to open a bottle of champagne to do a back to back comparison of the two sparkling wines.  The spiedini were great and evolved into a light salad.  The garlic was a disappointment according to Josh. I made bread with roasted tomatoes, garlic and onion.  I had opened the sangiovese and nebbiolo at this point.  I am an enabler when it comes to hosting parties at my house. I don't like stopping.  Wine flows freely.
As Josh prepared the walnut risotto, we had opened the additional bottles of Valpolicella and a french wine.  For some reason, we thought it would be a good idea to have more wine.  Josh bought a few bottles of garnacha and some chocolate.  We returned to my house and ate the risotto.  All, in all, a wonderful nigh full of wine and conversation.  They left and I woke to a house full of dishes.  Mostly wine glasses.  I am thankful that Josh cooked and realized he does not clean as he goes.  He is messy.  Still, a very successful night.  I have the limoncello for next time and I think we will continue to meet at my place.  It's convenient and I have wine glasses out the yang.  I always move my wine glasses with me.  Everything else, I replace.
I think, we are doing tapas next time.  When we do french, Teo wants to host.  Until then, I am off to yoga.

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