Three in a Row!

What an unexpectedly wonderful week for me! Time spent with friends not often seen on 3 separate occasions:

Breakfast with Kim on Tuesday - almost turned into lunch as well...so much to catch up on! So nice to laugh together again!

Dinner with Stacy on Wednesday - and although this is a picture of the dessert tray, we did NOT order dessert, for the sake of my Mii. We just had tea & sympathy for dessert.

Impromptu wine tasting and "event planning" evening with Ched and Tara on Thursday. We didn't get far in the "event planning" so we'll have to sacrifice and do this again soon!

These are parmesan crackers that I made following (well, I use that term loosely) a recipe in my new cookbook (yes, I needed ANOTHER one) Giada's Kitchen: New Italian Favorites. The recipe calls for Pecorino cheese and all purpose flour, but I only had parmesan cheese and white whole wheat flour, hence the darker color of these crackers. But they were soooo easy to make, and my kitchen smelled like a Cheez-It tastes while they baked in my oven. Just the right amount of cayenne pepper for a spicy after taste in your mouth (yes the cayenne actually WAS part of the recipe). I will definitely be making my own crackers again. I didn't think it could be so easy!

Also on the menu:

Toasted Ciabatta bread with goat cheese, fig jam and walnuts (really, it's a staple here)

Warm Artichoke, spinach and garlic dip

The three went really well with our conversation and the 2 bottles of red wine that we sampled...

So blessed with friends that can just pick up right where we left off, despite how much time has passed, and who obviously love to gather around food like Keith and I do!