Dinner guests. While I do get pleasure from cooking for myself, it truly brings me joy to have family and friends come for a meal. Last night, I had a dear friend stop by. He and his kids are on a one year journey of exploration, learning, creating, unplugging, and embracing what life has to offer. All of this, appropriately named: Sabbatical School.
Lucky me, Amsterdam was part of their itinerary! After almost two months on the road, where they have been eating out, and dining in, I was more than happy to offer a home cooked meal. After introducing them to Dutch stroopwaffels, we went to the other side of the world with a Thai Green Curry, and then finished the meal, a little closer to home, with this decadent Chocolate and Pistachio Torte from Yasmin Khan’s The Saffron Tales cookbook.
The cake is deeply, abundantly chocolate! We sided it with two ice-creams: coconut/vanilla, and chocolate/orange. Both were sweet complements to this dense, mildly nutty cake.
I continue to be impressed by Yasmin Khan’s cookbook. Her Saffron Tales feature recipes from the Persian kitchen and I am fervidly flipping through pages for new recipes to test and taste. I encourage you to do the same.
After a lovely visit chatting about times past and looking to the future, I wish these three adventurous nomads well as they traverse this gorgeous planet. They’ve only brought warm weather clothes; so who knows, perhaps next time, we’ll meet in sunnier climes 🙂