Yummy Holiday Dinner Party!

Last night, we went to one of our good friends’ houses for a holiday party! I love holiday parties – they’re so warm and cozy and it’s just a great excuse to get together with friends 🙂 And this one was especially warm and cozy because our friends have a real fireplace (with real firewood) and they kept it going the whole night! This party was sort of a potluck – everyone bought a little something to supplement the meal, and our friends made the main dish.

The night started with an awesome spread of appetizers and drinks: the standard hummus and pita, an assortment of cheeses and crackers, masala lentil dip, a creamy yogurt, green chile, cilantro, garlic and chickpea dip, fresh dates from switzerland, and a pretzel party mix from Trader Joe’s.

It was hard to capture everything in one shot! The drinks were awesome too – beer and wine, spiced cider with rum, and yummy non-alcoholic drinks like my cranberry spritzer below

The main courses were equally delicious – first up – the lamb which my friends roasted in the oven (and from what everyone told me, tasted amazing!) Here’s my friend – carving it up 🙂

We also had a creamy butternut squash, cheese, and spinach quiche, which finished faster than I could take a picture!

I love how the cheese gets all crispy and browned on top! We also had a wonderful, rich Mac & Cheese casserole with tomatoes, breadcrumbs and herbs

The theme of the night is I was too busy eating to remember to take pictures before the food started going! But at least this way you can see the layers of awesome, cheesy goodness 🙂 Can you believe after all this that we still had room for dessert?? Well, we did, after a short break of playing Taboo… and a very heated discussion over whether it’s grammatically correct to say “on accident” or “by accident.”

Which one do you say? I say “by accident,” but there were three people at the party who say “on accident”! After a very lengthy discussion, being the nerds we are we looked it up online and found a website called Grammar Girl where she addressed this very issue! Random huh? Anyway, the “by accident” people won the discussion, and my friend was so excited he did a little happy dance which I do have the video of, but won’t post online to preserve his dignity 🙂

Anyway, after all that I guess you could say we worked up an appetite for dessert – which was a dark chocolate torte with a soft cookie crumble from La Boulange Bakery

Can you say decadent?? 🙂 Needless to say, it was the perfect way to finish the night. Luscious and creamy dark chocolate filled the center, the crust was to die for, and the cookie crumble added a nice balance of flavors to the dish. Yay for holiday parties with friends!

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On a totally separate note, be sure to check out my latest giveaway for chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin cookies! Check it out and enter here