block party

remember that crazy progressive party we went to way back when? you know the one: the historic meeting of texas, george the greek's indiscretion, a wall of unread first editions and my disbelief that 'schlecker!' was not how germans say yum.

so we took the progressive party to the next level on the weekend. same beat, of course, but this one was something of a dinner party.

we started with lillet and tonic cocktails at alexis' place, scarfing down green goddess-laden vegies and the most delicious parmesan black pepper biscotti ever. you would love it, really you would.

the night rolled on, and we picked up a stephan as we slunk over to kai's,  where he and andrew delivered the goods with inappropriate modesty. creamy beetroot soup with a bruschetta of beetroot and red onion with beautiful grilled dorade.

we wove back to our place, where chris and i had constructed an outrageously unstable dinner table for eight from a pair of cupboard doors, our regular table, and a lot of packing tape. we served slow-cooked lamb with red peppers and chickpeas, which i am quite addicted to. needless to say,  i cooked too much and now have endless lamb pies and pots of harira to contend with.

the last stop was ewa's, where she presented the fruits of her five-hour-long labour: an opera to end all operas. dripping with raspberry syrup and chocolate ganache, it was ridiculous in the extreme and very, very good.