Visiting the Bickels

Saturday night our friends, the Bickels - including Sara, Josh, Noodle, Mikah, and Bear, invited us over for dinner. The menu? My favorite, stew. But not just any stew. Sara broke out the trusty Cook's Illustrated and prepared us some carbonnade à la flamande, a Belgian beef, beer, and onion stew. (Darr and I have made this a few times ourselves. Yum!) What's not to like about that? Served with asparagus and mashed potatoes it was just about as perfect as a meal can be. Probably I should not have started the political conversation that kept me yakking until far beyond the relatively new parents' bed time. But such is life when you have me over and then allow me to start talking about world affairs. At least I'm not apathetic.