Hosting lunch for your friends is special. It’s the kind of experience that lets you prepare comforting meals for the company that you love. Doing so enables you to savor not only the food but the companionship that you’ve fostered with these good people. One of life’s greatest pleasures is essentially slowing down to the chatter of your friends while enjoying some homemade food. Sure, you can always opt to meet up with them for brunch at a hip bistro but gathering at one’s home is, all in all, personal. You’re actually inviting your friends to your heart the moment you open your door to have them over.
Earlier today, I invited one of my close friends for lunch at our apartment. She’s a special one. She was my maid-of-honor at the wedding and the one who helped me go through trying times as a bride (especially since I was the kind who couldn't be bothered about weddings in the first place). I could never thank her enough. The best way for me to show her that gesture was to cook for her lunch consisting of some comfort fare. I served a classic dish of tomato-and-basil bruschetta, rigatoni with turkey ham and fat, cherry tomatoes and strawberry cheesecake ice-cream to seal the deal. The meal was as simple as it could get.
That day, I got the chance to meet her significant other (whom she had been gushing about on the phone) for the first time and boy, do I think they’re charming as a twosome. Their story is way too cute: one notices the other reading Persepolis at a gathering and falls in love. I mean, who wouldn’t? I’d fall the same for any Persepolis-toting person. N joined us for lunch after he came back home from work and we chatted for a few hours about everything under the sun. We sort of turned our backs on time as it passes. They stayed on even long after the post-dessert coffee began to brew. Once in a while, the two of them would photograph our Charlie chilling on the bed and marvel at the cat’s affinity to posing for the camera. That was a good moment we all shared on Christmas Eve. Understated yet good. On that note, I suppose that more small gatherings at home with friends in the near future wouldn’t hurt.
