Last night we were invited to dinner by a friend of ours who is visiting Tallinn with her sister and cousin. It was just a casual thing: “Hey, do you guys want to come to dinner too?” The thing is, my friend is a superb hostess, so dinner at her place is never an unremarkable affair.

We arrived to find a beautifully set round table, complete with placecards.

Since she is a smart hostess, she knows how to delegate. One of the other guests prepared this appetizer– an herby, cheesy mixture on toasted pita wedges, topped with lox and capers. Since we had spent the entire day on the beach (Pirita rand), the delicious salty combination was the perfect start to the evening.

Their creator apologized for overdoing it a bit with the capers. They did have a tendency to roll off, leaving us scrambling all over the floor after them .

I made the salad! It was thrown together in record time, just a simple, fresh, can’t-go-wrong mix of cucumbers, tomatoes, red wine and balsamic vinegars, and a bit of salt and pepper.

For the main course, the hostess prepared risotto with fresh veggies– zucchini, mushrooms, peppers– and scallops with some kind of amazing-smelling buttery sauce. The scallops were perfectly cooked, just so soft and rich and wonderful. I had seconds of the risotto. OK, and then one more scoopful after that.

And what’s dinner without dessert? My friend mixed heated fresh strawberries (mmm, maasikad) with a pear-rhubarb compote, which she then spooned over vanilla ice cream. Each dish was topped with a half a shot of Bailey’s, which was sort of a spontaneous last-second addition. My picture of it is terrible, but believe me, it was GOOD. Alongside dessert, there was ultra-strong coffee and hilarious stories of the best pranks people had ever played, or had played on them (would your parents ever try to convince you that you’re adopted??).

It was an absolutely wonderful time, so a big thank you to our hostess and everyone who was there and contributed. Love you guys!