Friends over for dinner

Having friends over for dinner. It sounds like such a banal phrase.

But Desney had recently realised that we actually haven't had friends over for dinner for over a year. There were obviously mitigating circumstances for a large portion of that year. But it's been a long time. The last time we had friends over was David and Sasha back in May 2005.

We invited a couple of friends over along with their two children. These are parents of one of Jessica's classmates. Jessica spends an enormous amount of time at their house after school on a regular basis and the mother works at the same Organisation as Desney.

We had a great time, great conversations, great food and large quantities of wine. Champagne and hors d'oeuvre; vintage Champagne (1995 Pierre Moncuit) along with Desney's amazing goat's cheese soufflées; a 1999 Morgon with duck shishkebabs; a 1998 Châteauneuf du Pape with cheese and finally a 1997 Gewürztraminer Vendanges Tardives (late harvest) from our favourite Alsatian winemaker to accompany Desney's apple crumble with vanilla ice cream.

All in all a great evening... now we remember why we used to have friends over for dinner!