I Love Me Some Dinner Parties

Honestly, we all know how much I love going to dinner whether it's out to a new restaurant or over to someone's home. Dinner parties of all types are awesome and I get excited just thinking about them. My friend, An, knows how much I love cooking and she'd recently told me about her friend, Daniel, and how I'd go bananas if I ever saw his kitchen. Well, it just so happens that he decided to throw a dinner party for some friends and he warmly extended the invite to me through An.

First off, Daniel's apartment is just gorgeous. I'd never seen something like it before in how unique the architecture and design was. An was definitely not joking about his kitchen, either. It was amazing. I am waiting ever so patiently for the day when I finally have a big, open kitchen. Oh, to dream... Anyway, Daniel was really gracious in welcoming me into his group of friends and it was truly so generous of him to throw this dinner party for everyone.

During his travels to New Zealand recently, he'd befriended the chef of a restaurant he loved and they've stayed in touch since. He actually hired him to cook for us since he was going to be in town and I thought it was such a fun idea. While Chef Michael got things started, we all mingled and got to know one another over fabulous wine:

I had fun taking some photos of Chef Michael while he worked. Just check out that meat:

I mean, yes please.

We had such a nice time over the course of the night. It turns out Daniel is from Atlanta and two of his friends there grew up with him so it was fun talking about our old stomping grounds. It was really neat hearing different stories and getting to know some great new people:

 Love me some An:

When it was finally time to eat, we were presented with tremendous prime rib, pan potatoes and roasted tomatoes with homemade onion jam:

It was all delicious and such a treat. For dessert, Michael had done a fresh cherry tart that was so light and summery:

What a lovely evening with lovely people. I felt so lucky to be invited and I really hope I'll be asked to come back sooner than later. ;)