Sunday dinnner... and much more!

Well, we did manage to have Sunday family dinner with uncles Ron and Bill as well as Tia Elsa this evening, and it was lovely. Which is good because we won't be cooking next weekend, as Gil goes out of town early Thursday morning not to return until late Sunday evening, But more about that in a minute.

In the meantime, it's been a whirlwind weekend. Saturday morning, Juj stayed with Ron as Gil facilitated his final session for the class he's been leading at the church and I had a hair appointment. I picked J up a bit after 11:30, and we finally deposited his birthday checks (sorry, grams & boppos!) in a savings account we're setting aside for him. I asked about opening one in his name, but didn't have his social security card with me to do it -- plus it's not like the old days, when you actually got a passbook where they tracked your balance for you each time -- now that was a thrill as a child!)

The off to Party City, ostensibly to get some Halloween decor for the yard and windows, but where we ended up spending something like an hour trying to get a pair of costumes for Gil and I that was in stock and had all the requisite pieces in the bag. We ended up with a pirate dude and lass, although I think our second choice is first choice for next year. Then to get the lunch. I decided to opt for Wendy's instead Schlotzky's since it was almost one o'clock (faster, right?), and once there, decided to skip the LOONNGGG line at the drive-thru to order inside (faster, right?) Well, Wendy's may have been closer, but it was the slowest fast food I've ever seen.

But all's well that ends well; we got home, ate, and decided to rest on the bed while watching Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas to get in the mood for the annual Horizon Halloween & trunk or treat party.

Julian went as Anakin, complete with light saber, cloak, training garb, and even a little padawan braid I concocted and clipped to his hair (which he did lose fairly promptly). The 'Traubs and Jeff, Laura and Gwen were there (along with many others, of course), and most of us made it through the haunted house. The cakewalk was a huge success (many cupcakes were won, including some dee-licious dark chocolate ones with dulce de leche filling -- and then Gil and I had a misunderstanding about bringing them home).

(OK, have you noticed I still haven't gotten to Sunday supper?)

To make a long story shorter, we stayed late, and Gil even helped vacuum for Sunday service set-up.

We slept in on Sunday because we had decided we couldn't make church and get to Ben's third birthday party by noon. And since Ben is as close to a little brother as J is going to get, the choice was clear! But i did need to go grocery shopping as I obviously hadn't squeezed that in Saturday, and Gil still needed to publish the weekly bulletin, so we went our separate ways, and eventually met up at the gym where the festivities were occurring, Gil with birthday present objective achieved (thank goodness for him!)

Now, after that, it was house cleaning and dinner making. An excellent fall menu, we all agreed, courtesy of Martha Stewart Living Nov 2007 issue (but Martha -- you might be able to make this in about an hour, but I sure as heck wasn't able to do so!):

• started with some fresh marinated mozzarella I picked up at Whole Foods with what I assume is soon to be the last of the basil from our yard along with some cherry tomatoes and roasted red bell peppers
• Spiced Chickpea and Tomato Soup
  
• Grilled Chicken Apple Sausage with Pears
• Celery Endive Slaw
• Ice Cream with Sweet Sherry Sauce

But needless to say, with Gil in Ohio for the UU Christian Revival next weekend, I will not being outdoing myself on that front. Stay tuned, though, because fall and winter are my favorite seasons for many reasons, the plethora of seasonal cooking favorites being primary among them!

People with too much time on their hands...

OK, no Sunday supper club this week -- my BF from college and beyond was in town with Cirque Dreams: Jungle Fantasy, so we went over to see it at Bass Hall. Julian seemed entranced but then was a shy contrarian and didn't admit he'd enjoyed it -- or getting to go backstage, which I hadn't done in years. (Looks, ma -- real stage hands watching football after the show -- I remember that!)

But anyway, on Saturday, Julian and I had one of our celebrated "mom & Juj" days (he loves Saturdays for that reason), and I (can't say this with anything but guilty shame) allowed about 30 minutes on You Tube together. We revisited old pals -- Weird Al's song about "Yoda" to the tune of the Kinks "Lola" (you may remember that from a previous post) and Mom's Overture which had been making the rounds lately but I still love it -- and found this gem, that my brother will especially appreciate (I hope). OK, this guy definitely has too much time on his hands (he admits on the post that it took >9 months to do!), but it's even more brilliant than Weird Al's original version. Enjoy!

PASTA

Hooray to my DH for pulling off the HUUC service auction Saturday night with basically no help from me. I got to come back from my trip to Chicago, and just dress up, show up, and drink up! (Oh, and I think I bid on a few things; love my new bracelet.) A good time seemed to be had by all, and we took Sunday off to relax.

(And, just like childbirth, I've already forgotten the pain -- since it was all Gil's anyway -- and started thinking about how we could make it even better next year. Isn't that pathetic?)

So look for the Sunday Supper Club to return next Sunday...

Buying my way way out...

Well, due to the ongoing exhaustion (too much work, lots of guests for J's 5th birthday festivities), we bought our way for family Sunday dinner this week, with my parents, Elsa, and Ron:
-- Stuffed chicken breasts (cajun rice or spinach-feta -- but why no cooking structions?!)
-- Roasted beet & shallot salad on mixed greens (yum!)
-- Green beans with shallots which I reheated wiht a touch of sherry
-- A nice whole grain loaf of bread & butter
-- Leftover Mexican chocolate birthday cake form Delicious Cakes, with vanilla ice cream; and watermelon

This may be repeated in some form the next couple of weeks, until after the upcoming princess-pony-unicorn party (attending, not hosting) and PASTA are done. thank you Whole Foods!