Good dinner, great friends

Rick and Faye came over for dinner last night and were forced to sit for a couple of hours watching Garrett and me cook. It was worth the wait. Using organically raised lamb we had gotten from Hendricks Farm and Dairy, we made tamarind-glazed lamb skewers with dried apricot relish, a recipe I found on epicurious.com. Delicious! And really, not as difficult as I'm making it sound. Definitely will make it again and again. Accompanying the lamb, we made another epicurious recipe, chickpea salad with parsley, lemon, and sun-dried tomatoes. This is really super simple and can serve as a great one-dish meal for lunch. Both dishes went extremely well with the two zinfandels we opened: a 2002 Vintners blend from Ravenswood and a 2003 old vines zin from Sobon Estate in Amador county, California, one of the wineries we plan to visit on our trip to California this summer. These two wines are very different, with the old vines being much more concentrated and somewhat sweeter. Both are delicious. As usual, the combination of good food, wine, and great friends made for a wonderful evening.