Good friends, great weather and some good conti food

 

We had invited S, her husband and her beautiful daughters over for lunch over the weekend. S was working and came in a bit late, but her husband and the girls came over a little early. The weather was just perfect. It wasnt raining thankfully(after the endless rains over the past few months, this was a welcome break!) and it wasnt sunny either. It was this perfect mix of clouds, no humidity and cool breeze. The guys had settled down in the balcony, and I was shuttling between the kitchen, the balcony and the bedroom where the girls were playing. Kitchen because I was making bruschettas as appetizers, balcony was to catch a bite or two of them as they were fast disappearing and bedroom coz I loved playing with the girls. Thankfully I had prepared lunch and apple muffins (for the girls) much earlier and the dish had finished baking also, so when S came back from work we just talked and talked and talked. It was 4 by the time we had our lunch, but we kept our stomachs and legs busy with the bruschettas, and running behind the girls, in that order. :)

While browsing for one-dish bakes, I came across this wonderful recipe of au gratin. Since au gratin was something I had never heard of, I wanted to try this one out. And since this one was full of veggies, I thought this would be a healthy dish for the girls too. Semolina was something I got interested in, but I wasnt comfortable with the eggs in the dish. Moreover, I wasnt sure how to make the white sauce. So I browsed some more and bumped into this recipe

So there it was. I made my first ever au gratin, and followed the recipe pretty much to the T. We ate it with some fresh focaccia bread from Sweet Nirvana and burped! :)

We wrapped up the day with some more chocolate muffins that I baked freshly in the evening. I and the husband somehow managed to keep some place in the tummy aside to dine at MasterChef Nandita’s place. She had made great Pav Bhaji, and we had a good time chatting late into the night.

All in all, it was an awesome weekend spent with great friends and good food. What else does one need! :)