11.03.08

Cosy Sunday lunch with friends

Posted in Family & Friends, Food, London at 8.00 am by Caitlin

What could be better than a lazy Sunday afternoon with friends, eating wonderful food, drinking wine and playing games?

In mid-September we moved to the East End, after two years in West Hampstead (and the two years before that in Clapham). We wanted to try a different part of London and, just as importantly, we wanted a bigger place. We are now renting a rather spacious two-bedroom flat and I am using the second bedroom as my home office. Our previous flat was quite small and we only had a small fold-up card table with two chairs so it was difficult to have friends over for a meal. Now we have a good-sized wooden table that extends so we can fit six or even eight people comfortably.

I love to cook so now that we have the space I’m planning to have friends over more often, especially now the cold weather is here and the urge to cocoon in our cosy flat is growing stronger. Hopefully it will also allow me to save money by going out less. The last Sunday in October we had Emme and Jon over for lunch. My fiance did the honours in the kitchen with a fantastic vegetarian aubergine moussaka and we followed with baked apples with marscapone for dessert. After lunch we played a game of Cranium (which combines Pictionary, trivia, word games and charades) and the boys won by a whisker.

Yesterday we had Jess and Andrew and Tash and Matt over for Sunday lunch and again we spent the afternoon eating and playing games. We started with mulled white wine – a new one on me, since I’ve only ever had mulled red wine before, but totally delicious. For lunch I made slow-cooked lamb with wine and veg served with crusty ciabatta – a Jamie Oliver recipe, which worked fantastically well. I also made a Middle Eastern aubergine and chickpea stew – a Nigella Lawson recipe – for the vegetarian contingent. My guests brought plenty of wine and soft drinks and sweet treats. Jess brought homemade brownies, which we served with vanilla ice cream and dulce de leche, and Matt brought homemade dark chocolate cookies to have with coffee later. Totally decadent, and I didn’t need dinner at all that night!

Jess and Andrew gave us Kerplunk! – or rather, the new and improved Kerplunk! with a spiffy spiral funnel for the marbles – as a housewarming gift so we had a couple of rounds of that, then we played Whist, which is like Five Hundred or Euchre but more of a party game. It was all loads of fun and the perfect way to spend a cold November Sunday afternoon.

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