Dinner Party Time!

On friday night, I had the honor of attending a lovely dinner party by R, teacher of young children and awesome dinner party thrower, extraordinaire. Can I just tell you how awesome his condo is? It's just awesome. I love everything about it. When I dream about the type of condo I would like to have, it's just like R's condo. Damn him. Not only the condo itself, but everything he has in it. If he ever wanted to trade, I would totally let him have my house. Really. No joke.
A variety of delicious cheese and crackers, pate, nuts, and olives. Wait till you see what else he made for this party. And he made it all himself. And the crazy thing is that he said he cooks like this every night. How can anyone cook like this every night? I'd need an extra 4 hours in my day! My jealousy grows...
A couple more appetizers... Chorizo with a shallot, onion, and apple reduction. Um, hello, can we say delicious? And some type of shrimp based appetizer housed in adorable little red endive leaves. Again, delicious. Who has time to make stuff like these? And we all adored the human pincushion toothpick holder.

A gorgeous antipasti with lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, mozzarella, artichoke, peperoncini stuffed with ham and cheese, and all of it topped with the loveliest and thinnest slices of proscuitto. I took this picture before it was drizzled with olive oil and balsamic. Goodness. If all salads are like this, then I could agree to eat salads all the time.

For the main course, R outdid himself. Slow braised short ribs with wine and an apple based sauce. It was super tender and so heavily flavored and amazing. It was served on top of mascarpone polenta. And served with some haricot verts. Again, can I ask, who cooks like this? I would end up eating at 1AM. Everything was amazing.
Just when you think you're done, he laid these little puppies on us. Lemons filled with lemon curd, topped with lemon meringue. And at the bottom of these tasty little treats, crushed graham crackers. Unbelievable. Truly unbelievable. If all dinner parties are like this, please, please invite me to your dinner parties. I am an excellent guest. I will sing and dance if you ask. I will bring cake (like the mocha cake). I will help clean. Really. And as for R, he can invite me over any time. It was definitely a dinner party to remember. My stomach won't ever forget it!