another dinner

After my lovely visit to Rhode Island, I had one day off before returning to work. I guess I wasn't ready to let go of the vacation feeling - I decided to have some friends over for dinner, after the triumph of wine night!

I set the table for five:

 

and paused to get a picture of the hillside behind my apartment, which is blooming like crazy right now:

It was super rainy out, so I spent a nice couple of hours making my apartment smell great by producing a huge vat of applesauce, and also a big pot of chicken & dumplings:

 

 The recipe is from The Complete America's Test Kitchen TV Show Cookbook - I got it for Christmas (well... I got my sister's 2nd copy in exchange for giving her another cookbook at a later date), and the very first time I flipped through it, I fell for that recipe. I vowed to get a Dutch oven and make it, and I knew I'd have to have guests, as it serves 6-8 and I don't think dumplings would keep very well. I still don't know the answer to that, as we scarfed every last dumpling down. Note to self: next time make them smaller so I have hopes of having leftovers! 

It was a lovely way to spend a rainy evening before heading back to work. Now that I've taken the plunge and had people over for dinner, I hope I do more of it. We'll see.