Company & Sunday Dinner

This Sunday, I had company over from out of town. Although it is still in the 70's in the day in Austin, the temperature drops at night. It gets dark by six.

So I made comfort food--roast chicken with winter vegetables (parsnips, butternut squash, pumpkin, mushrooms and onions with rosemary.) Roasted potatoes, and a salad of tart greens with prosciutto and parmesan and warm balsamic vinaigrette. Okay, it was comfort food ala Northern Italy (the chicken was marinated in olive oil and with chopped rosemary from my own plants.)

The company was wonderful. The group from the ELI Foundation was smart, interesting and lively. There is something glittering about a dinner party in winter, when the world outside is dark and the light focuses everybody on the table and the company.

The leftover chicken and winter vegetables went in a pot with chicken stock and some good tomato paste the next morning and I'll be eating ice box chicken soup for the rest of the week, which is a nice way to remember a wonderful evening.