Tonight I felt like I was at home. An old school favorite song of mine from high school and early college days even sang in my head as I cooked.

Even though our furniture isn’t set to arrive until Friday at 8am, I hosted someone in the flat for the first time tonight! Maybe it’s my Southern roots or just my upbringing but there is nothing I love more than opening my home to friends, whether it’s 1 or 20, and sharing a bottle of wine while enjoying homemade meal and conversation.

I realized this morning that I kept putting off hosting my girlfriends merely because I didn’t feel I could properly host without our furniture, fresh flowers and a spotless home. But, an evening like tonight is far more important than any of that. When I realized that Emily was working late and hadn’t gone to the grocery store due to a weekend trip to Amsterdam I thought it was the perfect opportunity to host and use some of the produce on their last legs.

Within an hour of walking through the door the apartment was cleaner than it’s been in the five weeks I’ve been here and the candles aroma filled the apartment.  It wasn’t a fancy evening but it was one more step in making Geneva feel like home versus an extended work trip.

We laughed over stories from our respective weekends and sipped a local white chardonnay. Since I was starving I put together a quick cheese plate with a Manchego and Brie cheese bought from the store this evening paired with some crackers and cornichons. Our main course was a dinner salad featuring a bed of baby spinach topped with freshly sliced and salted tomatoes, figs, goat cheese, sautéed mushrooms, and grilled chicken sausage. The chicken sausage was a bit random as I swore it was just chicken when I took it out of the freezer this morning in my pre-run morning stupor, but it did the job.