Happy New Year, everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful evening, just like the one I had, with friends, family and/or…whomever…great food, games, fun, chocolate, good music, and lots of hugs and kisses. I spent New Year’s Eve at home with my Stefano and five close friends, two of whom had moved in with us before Xmas (together with their three cats who are living in a cat-friendly, cozy room downstairs…We are keeping our cats separated from theirs, since this is only a temporary situation, plus Prezzemolo might infect their cats with his chronic cold issue, which would be terrible!), just for a few weeks while they get ready to move overseas…

Stefano, who is an amazing cook, really outdid himself. He prepared a meal fit for a king…course after course after course of absolutely wonderful food. One of the courses had to include a pot full of lentils…According to (Italian) tradition, in fact, you have to eat lentils on New Year’s Eve: lentils are supposed to bring you money in the new year. Every single Italian I know has lentils in this period. And in any case, I love lentils…and besides, they contain IRON!

We laughed, discussed politics (luckily, we all pretty much agreed on everything!), New York City, art, food (of course!), etc….played games and…kept eating until we could eat no more. After HOURS of stuffing our faces, unable to stop because everything was so delicious, I began to feel a bit like an overstuffed turkey. Mamma mia! And I haven’t even mentioned dessert!!! I’d made a couple of gluten-free sweets (mainly for my two gluten-free friends), which turned out incredibly well…and another friend had made a delicious gluten-free apple cake with pecans, coconut milk and cinnamon, plus Xmas gluten-free cookies. We have enough leftovers to feed an army of people…

Anyway, we had such a glorious time that we nearly missed the midnight countdown. Now that would have been funny… 😀

The photo above was taken by Stefano of a beautiful stray cat in Rome (that was our Domus Aurea trip). He gave me permission to publish it on my blog, so…enjoy! Let’s hope that 2015 brings happiness and, most of all, GOOD HEALTH to all of us. Take care, everyone! 🙂