Homemade pasta night.

"Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking

if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity." ~ Voltaire

Paul and Brooke, Tommy and Linda, Moi, and half of Steven's head

Warm home on a chilly night.  Homemade sauce bubbling on the stove.  Fresh doughy pasta made of only two ingredients a la Jamie Oliver: organic unbleached flour, and farm eggs with bright orange yolks.  A knock on the door and another friend arrives, just off a plane from Nashville, yearning for an evening of community; the rest of us eager to feed her a good, hearty meal.  Silly photos are taken.  Chipped plates that I've had since college are piled with hot saucy ribbons and sprinkled with parmasan cheese. 

This, here, is the "simple life" - a rustic farm table with mismatched uneven chairs, hearty homecooked food, clinking glasses full of spicy red wine, and friends with which to share it all. 

By now, the scents of home cooking - freshly-ground coffee, pungent garlic, earthly herbs - are infused into our house's walls, walls that have held together countless parties and impromptu gatherings.  And homemade pasta night was another one to add to the repertoire, a wonderful start to the new year, and perhaps a new tradition.