Tonight's Specials

My boy and I are very grateful for the wonderful friends and family we've been blessed with. Some people post frequently in November sharing the list of things for which they're grateful. Clearly I am not that type of person :).

My boy and I do like to play host though, so we thought we'd invite all of our local friends to stop by our house on Saturday between 2:00pm and 8:00pm so we could feed them and fellowship for a little while. I mentioned in my last post that I'm really behind the 8 ball for a party, well this is it!

I thought I'd post the tentative menu for this party that's been neglected so long. Items in red we've completely given up on, Items in green have been made, Items in yellowish orange have been started, items in black haven't been touched at all (are you as worried as I am?!):

Bread basket (roasted garlic, baguette, challah)/possibly parmesan cookies

plain butter, blackberry lemon butter

eggplant walnut dip: http://www.chow.com/recipes/13433-roasted-eggplant-and-walnut-dip

Maple Onion Jam http://www.countryhome.com/images/PDFs/Maple-OnionJam.pdf

blue cheese pate

blackberries (possibly other fruit if creme anglaise is made)

Crudite & dip -- someone took this out of my hands!

Gruyere honey mustard puffs

possibly cheddar olives: http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/hors-doeuvres/recipe-cheddar-olives-047009

some kind of flavored popcorn -- thank you little lad

Roasted Fall Vegetable Pizza: http://www.marthastewart.com/313662/roasted-fall-vegetable-and-ricotta-pizza

Dinner:

Some kind of meat (suckling pig?, chicken from chinatown? pot roast? brisket?)

roasted potato stacks http://gourmandrecipes.com/roasted-potato-recipe/

Balsamic mushrooms (and/or brussel sprouts)

http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/main-dish/quick-recipe-pumpkin-ricotta-pasta-casserole-130962 ricotta pumpkin casserole

Dessert:

http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/dessert/recipe-chewy-molasses-cookies-with-crunchy-lemon-glaze-130827 lemon glazed soft ginger cookies

pumpkin cookies with cream cheese frosting

vanilla ice cream

maple ginger ice cream

possibly madelines

possibly peanut butter smash cookies

possibly creme anglaise

possibly meringue

Drinks:

Chilled Cranberry ginger punch (with sparkling water if desired)http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/hot-cranberry-ginger-punch-10000000633522/ hot apple cider, sparkling wine, red wine, root beer

Clearly we have a ways to go. . . I'll let you know how it all turns out!

A Million Points of Interest, Not a Single Blog Post

It's been brought to my attention that some of you are no longer enamored with the ball pit, and you'd like a new post to go up. I hadn't realized this because, as of yet, no one has invited me over to take a dip in their ball pit and I assumed that it was my duty to keep that post at the top so you wouldn't miss any important instructions! I mean, I really, really want to visit a ball pit people.

Here are various things that are not terribly interesting, nor in any particular order, but are things I've thought about in the Month Plus since I've been MIA.

• The bus stop I wait at every morning is right next to the largest independently owned pharmacy in New England. There are several women who work there that stand outside smoking and gossiping before work (a do as I say not as I do sort of thing, I think). The other day, or week, or possibly month at this point, I heard one of the ladies exclaiming, "Oh, I know! Everyone is sick right now!" Let's review, THEY WORK AT A PHARMACY!!! Of course everyone they see is sick! It made me smile. . .
• My boy and I are planning a laid back quiet open house type party on Saturday. We've been planning it for almost three weeks. I have a schedule of when items should be done to ensure maximum relaxing planning and execution. We've accomplished about 1/10th of what needs to happen by Saturday. I am usually not home on Wednesday or Thursday nights. I am getting scared.
  
• I am currently making maple onion jam. I don't know whether I'll like it or not, but we had onions, we had maple and it seemed like an appropriate fall themed item to make. I can tell you it has thyme in it. I'm not a fan of thyme. . .
• My laptop died. Perhaps that's not entirely accurate, there's an incredibly sad wheezing noise it makes if you to try and start it up, but it won't ever actually get to a start up screen, it just sort of breaths labored breaths that make you want to tell it as much as you love it, it's okay, if it has to leave you behind. That's not an excuse for why I've stopped blogging. I'm just telling you it isn't helping with the blogging.
  
• After much angst and wavering I think I might (notice any wavering?!) get an iPad. It was this keyboard that swayed me. Though my boy points out that it may not be the answer to my dreams I think it is.
• I just got back from a girl's weekend in NOLA. Though one of the ladies and I said at the same time "I'd rather live in Vegas than here," I did enjoy my visit and wished we had had more time to eat!
  
• We went in honor of the date I've been waiting for most of my life, 11-11-11. The numbers still make me sigh in satisfaction. They're as comforting and lovely as hearing a dishwasher running at night. I hadn't realized the dates visual similarity to corduroy, but luckily, this other obsessed person was able to point it out!
  
• Here's a tip, if you're going to Herbsaint, listen to the waitress, get their house made spaghetti with guanciale and fried poached egg small plate!! I heard a guy at another table say to his waiter as he got up to go to the bathroom "Do NOT under any circumstances deliver my spaghetti while I am gone! If you deliver it and I am not here, there won't be any left when I get back!" I thought he was exaggerating. Let's just say it was not the dish I ordered and I am still thinking about the bite I had.
• Air boats are now on my list of approved water craft (it's a short list, canoes, and kayaks have not made that list).
• I got to go up to the 33rd floor of a building on State Street today. the view was amazing! I could see the chain of Boston harbor islands!
• I saw some clay gift tags and I've decided I'd like to make some for Christmas gifts this year. Clearly I have none of the tools and our craft area is sort of leaking all over the house so this is JUST what I need to do!
• I still have a tub of clear glycerin hanging around from when I tried to make these super cute soaps for a wedding favor (I was overruled). I've told my boy I want to try and make soap for Christmas too.
• It's unlikely I'll do either of these things, I mean look back up to the bullet point about the fast approaching Thanksgiving Party. . .
• We're responsible for getting a turkey to my boy's family's house for Thanksgiving this year. Several years ago we were responsible for cheese and olives. We brought an overwhelming supply of both. I was informed that they only liked sharp cheddar. . . Last year we were in charge of stuffing. I got nervous I was using too much liquid while making the stuffing and used a suggestion to cook the stuffing in muffin tins for individual servings, it turned out dry and awful (though it was much closer seasoning-wise to the stove top stuffing I prefer). So this year we're bringing the turkey. We'll see how that goes.
  
• The good news is that the onion jam appears to taste like the yummy Sardignia pizza from Sophia's Grotto. The bad news is that it also looks black. Think people will eat black onion jam?
• It doesn't really matter. I finally have one thing checked off my list. I'm going to bed!