Peace in the Middle East!

Our friend, Bill (who is single, by the way!) hosted our cooking club for this month. The theme: Peace in the Middle East. Our cooking club tries to get together once every 2 months and we choose a theme. Then we all cook food from scratch and share the food with each other. Of course, in the end we tend to get drunk since we all like to drink our alcoholic libations.

Anyhoo, my sister-in-law made delicious hummus with soft, warm pita bread. Michelle, her co-worker from the Eye of Mordor (Omni Hotel) made us all falafel from scratch; they also made a refreshing yogurt-cucumber sauce.

Thank goodness Bill (did I mention he is single, ladies, and he's 33 and drives a Honda Accord?) has a deep fryer. Michelle went to town on that thing frying up the falafel. Bill made us all cinnamon-spiced lamb kabobs and potato latkes. I made Israeli couscous and Lebanese meatballs in a tomato sauce--everything was delicious.

Our friends, Scott and Benni, brought Witch Creek wine. It's from Carlsbad, California and it's a really good wine. Matthew and I also brought local wine from Belle Marie winery in Escondido. If you guys are ever in Carlsbad or Escondido, you should check out these wineries. Their wines are surprisingly yummy and I think in a few more years they are only going to get better.

The girls of the cooking club.

Finally, the boys ended the feast with some faux-Cuban cigars. Bill is the one with the extremely red shirt!