We Entertained!

At home we often have friends over for a Sunday lunch, a bbq, drinks and nibbles, an early dinner on a school night, etc, but since moving here we haven't really had much opportunity. It's not helped by the fact that we don't know too many people. Anyway, Offspring #1's teacher, J, is an old 'drinking buddy' from when Hubby and I were up this way last time round - she arrived in Red Dirt Central around the same time as us. Her partner was transferred up here and at the same time an extra teacher was needed in town so it all worked out rather nicely. We were both pleasantly surprised when we met at the school's Information Session for the new class that had been created. Anyway, I had promised to catch up with her over the holidays and of course the holidays finish tomorrow... so I rang Friday morning and asked if she and her partner would like to come over for a drink that night.

We decided that rather than cooking dinner I'd do nibblies but make them reasonably substantial. Have I mentioned that I love cooking? It makes me happy. It relaxes me. And it's even better when I get to make a bunch of little bits and pieces. Sorry, no photos today - we ate it all way to fast to stop and take pics LOL. I made herbed meatballs (which we had with sweet chilli sauce), bacon and leek spirals and a focacia to go with the olive tapenade I had in the fridge. I bought some marinated chicken wings and also did a cheese platter. Those of you who know me well know that I don't really need an excuse for dessert, and it's even better if I can work chocolate into it.Since we were only having nibblies rather than a proper meal I had to give this some serious thought but finally came up with... choclate fondue! I found a new recipe so we tried that and it was an absolute winner - 250g block of chocolate, half a bag of marshmellows, half a cup of thickened cream. It was delicious! To top it off we enjoyed some very nice WA wines too.

The kids were angels and went to bed with no arguments, we enjoyed some 'grown-up' company and I felt like a normal person instead of a tired mummy with no social life. Yay for entertaining.