A special dinner with my neighbors

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My parents have a neighbor who is a remarkable man. I'm not going to get into why he's remarkable, other than to say he's a man of many talents and has a heart of gold.

One of the many things he likes to do is cook. Curry is a specialty of his, but it's a time-consuming endeavor. He says he only makes it once a year. Luckily for me, this always seems to coinside with when I happen to be visiting.

This year we invited some other neighbors from across the way to join us. We started out by snacking away on a delicious, creamy, cheesy dip with crackers and opening a few bottles of wine. The smell of curry teased our noses.

When it was announced that the curry was ready, I led the way, showing the newest members of our dining group how it's done. Serve up the rice, serve up the curry, add a little more curry sauce, and then declare that you'll be back for seconds.

In the dining room, ready and waiting, were twelve small, square wooden bowls, each mounded with finely chopped toppings. There was a lovely salad, too, but who eats salad when there's curry?

After we'd laughed our way through stories and jokes, multiple plates of curry, and sampled some more wine, we declared we were stuffed. At least until it was announced that we'd brought apple pie for dessert, and suddenly we all had more room. Our neighbor even had a special dessert wine he had purchased just for the occassion.

After eating enough to put ourselves dangerously near a food coma, our neighbor brought out his last treat of the evening, homemade krupnik, a sweet, honey flavored liqueur. We sipped, we smiled, and we appreciated how lucky we are to come together as friends and enjoy a wonderful meal and evening together.

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Photos

Toppings for the curry
He slices and dices all day,
so at night we can top our curry how we want,
and play