Chicken with chanterelles

A last-minute invitation arrived in my in-box yesterday mid-afternoon. Dan and Scott were offering us seats at their table for dinner with a couple of other teammates. Conrad and I - fortunately - have a rule that favours invitations to homecooked dinners, so we readily cancelled a dinner reservation to enjoy a meal with friends.

As mentioned in an early post, Dan and Scott are good guys through and through. They are also good cooks, excellent party hosts, and owners of a lovely condo with terrific views south to downtown. We arrived at 7 and settled in to snacking on bread, cheeses, ham and salami, pickles, mustards, and homemade crispy sweet potato ribbons. Dan mixed some cocktails using vodka that they'd infused with pumpkin, cinnamon, vanilla, and nutmeg. Tasty!Alas, the only photo I have of them that turned out halfway alright hardly shows them or their kitchen to best effect. Here's an older shot from early June that gives you a better look at them, though not their lovely home.

Chuck and Dom were there as well - the dinner was something of a thank you to Chuck for house and dogsitting while Dan and Scott were in Spain. The company and conversation were lively all night long, though I fear Conrad got a little lost in the Gilmoresian quality of it. Ah well. I'll get him started on the DVDs of the show and work on his whip-smart pop culture references.

Our dinner was chicken with chanterelles, fingerling potatoes, and fennel. Dominic, of all people, not only ate all his fennel, but he WASN'T a fennel virgin. We were shocked! It was a filling and entirely satisfying meal, enjoyed with a French syrah. Dessert consisted of individual fruit crumbles piping hot from the oven and some coffee.

Conrad and I managed to avoid doing dishes, for which I feel slightly guilty (but I'll get over it) and made it home a little after midnight following a nice saunter on a mild night up the Drive. I should note that less than an hour before we went over to Dan and Scott's a huge storm blew through that had the city's emergency sirens signalling the danger of tornados. I wonder, just wonder, if any were sighted in the end.

A big meal plus booze equals a bad night of sleep, especially given how very sore I am today from having gone to the gym on Thursday morning for the first time in over four years. Ugh. Swimming in less than an hour, and then maybe a nap? Laundry is more likely. But then: a homecooked dinner at a friend's a second night! We're living a charmed weekend, somehow!