friends & food, food & friends

that pretty much sums up our weekend... starting on thursday when we hosted some friends for a long-promised chicken-wing-night. hence this picture... of many chicken wings:

our friends who will be spending the next 6 months state-side left us in charge of their deep-fryer, so we figured we'd try it out. ben and i were both skeptical of our ability to deep-fry, but all went well.

one thing we did learn: that it's important, when deep-frying, to do the deep-fry dance.

after everyone had the chance to stuff themselves silly with buffalo hot wings, french fries, salad and plenty of dipping sauce (yeah, i made ranch & bleu cheese dressings, from scratch), a rowdy game of 'guess your celebrity' ensued. t'was fun.

on saturday i planned a dinner party with adam & julianne but hadn't thought much about what to make, until friday evening when i found myself skimming through my copy of julia child's 'french chef' cookbook. by saturday mid-afternoon i was channeling julia herself, making 'boeuf bourguignon' (which MUST be said out loud while rendering your best julia child impression, as i did all day long while cooking the stuff). unfortunately i was too busy following her incredibly dense directions (put the mushrooms in some water, then swish them around a bit) to snap any photos, so your imagination and this photo of j.c. will just have to suffice... but i will say it was delicious.

on sunday the very last thing in the world that i wanted to do was cook, but luck was on my side as my friend asli invited us over for an afternoon/evening of eating and drinking all things spanish. she really went all out, as the pictures will show:

all the fixings for paella

spanish tortilla, keeping warm in the oven next to a squid.
this ugly fish turned water into 'fish water,' for the paella, and tasted pretty good chopped up into little bits with olive oil drizzled over, served up as tapas.
thankfully asli & burcu did the cooking, while i watched, asked questions, washed dishes and provided an ongoing commentary.

the paella comes together!
don't forget the sangria...
any good meal is not complete without good friends to share it with... ozge, burcu & yalin
asli & mehmet, our hosts
getting ready to break bread
seriously, this should be submitted to a food magazine along with asli's recipe... it was INCREDIBLE!
tortilla
lea didn't eat any, but she did keep me company

there it is... all of the ingredients for a perfect sunday night! here's hoping your weekend was filled with good food and great company, just like ours!