Cena con amigos en Dublin

On Saturday evening we had our Spanish teacher for dinner with her boyfriend. A few weeks previously we had a lovely evening in their apartment and so we were happy to return the favour and have them over in our house.

When we visited them it was bucketing rain and although we planned to cycle (they live near the docks) it was far to wet so we went to get a taxi but struggled as it was so wet and everyone in Dublin was trying to get a taxi somewhere rather than getting wet! And then for them this Saturday, it was raining too! But they managed to get here by taking the Luas and then walking to our house with umbrellas.

So after getting up early and cycling to Rathmines to the Swan Centre to buy all of the food (we brought 2 biks bags and one backpack with us) for dinner, we served a Spanish - Irish mix up. For drinks, we had to go to Supervalu later in the day on a beer run as we had no room in our bags after shopping in Dunnes. On the beer run, we picked up Guinness, Heineken, Malbec wine (for me!) and some tonic for gin. 

For food, we started with a charcuteries of meats along with Spanish (Manchego) Cheese and Irish Cheese (Cheddar) and also some blue Stilton. Our Spanish teacher had given us some Membrillo (Quince) which was homemade in Spain by her boyfriend's mother and we served this with the cheese. So delicious!

We also had olives, hummus and sundried tomatoes which was just lovely with arrival drinks.

After these starter nibbles (which I named "Snibbles" in my head!) we moved in to the kitchen where I served a Wedge Salad with blue cheese dressing topped with bacon bits and tomato. I used the Serious Keto dressing recipe for the base and then added blue cheese to it and it worked out well. The first time I had this wedge salad was in Santiago's Bodega in Key West and it's a big favourite of mine.  Unfortunately I didn't take a phot this evening but it literally is a wedge (a quarter) of an ice berg lettuce, topped with dressing and extras. 

For main, we had Spanish meatballs with some sides.  Sides included Cous Cous and twice cooked hasselbeck potatoes which were divine. 

Postres / Desserts were a few small brownie bites, strawberries & cream and I also made an "Irish" version of tiramisu using choc chip brioche instead of ladyfingers (which were impossible to find) and Baileys instead of Marsala wine.

All in all it was a lovely evening with great company (and great to talk Spanish socially......or in our case, to try) and  a nice thing to do on a Bank Holiday rather than go do our usual of a dinner in Dillingers!

So that was my Saturday night, do let me know in the comment box below what you got up to :-)

Here's the direct link to the Serious Keto dressing video - it's super easy if you want to give it a go, and you can mix it up and add different flavourings if you don't want to do blue cheese.

Edit -

A week later I received a photo from my Spanish teacher of the Hasselbeck potatos that she cooked on Saturday night, with a note in Spanish to say she was making potatoes the way I did. I thought that was a great compliment!