An unplanned plan of lamb shanks

Lamb shanks with white beans, kale with proscuitto, and chocolate bread pudding.  Mmmm.

A few friends came over and we cooked up a group dinner. Is there anything better than a few friends with lamb?  (No fava bean comments.)

A couple of us spent most of our time in the kitchen, while the rest were socializing in the living room.  I tried something obvious that I hadn't tried before: background music.  Duh.  With every conversation, there are always those uncomfortable pregant pauses, and it turns out that having music on in the background helps smooth over those rough spots.

While dinner was cooking, we played set, and afterwards we played the word game quiddler -- and we all got beaten by a Brazilian guy for whom English is his second language.