lunch story

I love a casual lunch with friends, no stress, all pleasure, specially if it is sort of a potluck affair with a friend bringing salad and the other one a box of gourmet cookies....One of the friends is a photographer that I work with and upon entering my house, she started looking around and with her photographer's eye, wanted to capture the moment in pictures. I handed her my point and shoot, and here are the results.






I think pizza is my favorite food ( not too original there..) and since significant decided that he was gluten sensitive, gone are the days of home made pizzas dripping with seasonal toppings... until friends are coming over and I can serve a mushroom one on a whole wheat crust.To give it a more woodsy aroma, I mixed grated fontina with smoked mozarella, and sauteed my medley of wild mushrooms with shallots, garlic and rosemary and thyme in a bath of butter and olive oil.I like to have an aromatic garlic oil with herbs on the side that I slather on the steaming pizza as it comes out of the oven.It adds another layer of juiciness and kick.C had brought a box of baby spinach into which she added sunny cubes of persimmons, and she finished it off with a scattering of fresh goat cheese, topped by a balsamic vinaigrette.An inch of red wine, then coffee and a sampling of decadent cookies ( from Katrina Rozelle): chewy double chocolate,shortbread with delicate lemony icing were among the favorites. The old cat , always hoping for a savory morsel, was hanging out, looking up at he action in the kitchen, that November day in the middle of this delicious, heartwarming occasion.