the essence

Sunday we had several of our couple friends & their kids over for lunch after church. I love having people over & one of the things I love about it (besides visiting) is preparing the food!

Of course, I was so busy that I forgot to get a picture of anything but the appetizer & dessert.

I know I'm starving after church & it's terrible waiting another hour before you actually get to eat so I had a cheese & fruit platter ready. Sharp & tangy three-year aged white cheddar with sweet grapes - the perfect combination!



And, for dessert, a chocolate cheesecake flan. This was a new recipe, so I was glad it turned out okay, although it didn't really seem like cheesecake & it definitely didn't taste like flan! It was something different, though! (I also enjoyed making the little chocolate square decorations)



The rest of the meal was rounded out with chicken parmesean, spaghetti, salad, & a homemade mozzarella garlic bread using my no-fail pizza crust! (It almost failed me as I added twice as much salt as I was supposed to when making it in the morning! I think I manazged to scoop most of the extra out....)