Monday, March 31, 2008

Now we're cooking

On Saturday, Rich & I did something we haven't done since Vivian was born (and get your minds out of the gutter). We had people over for dinner. I cooked. And set the table, complete with a table cloth, cloth napkins, water AND wine glasses.

It's important for us to have people over regularly, because I've found that the threat of company is the only incentive we have to really clean. We keep things neat enough regularly, but I have to admit that unless people are coming to eat, I sometimes forget to clean the dust bunnies off of the ceiling fans.


So on Saturday, Michael and Kelly came over for a fabulous (if I do say so myself)
dinner of chicken chasseur (chicken, tomatoes, onions and lots of mushrooms) served over egg noodles. I used my slow cooker to make the recipe from the America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook, and I will make the resolution that I will always use my slow cooker for dinner parties (unless it's a backyard BBQ - but then, those will have to wait until we have a backyard). I started the prep at about 2:30 p.m., put everything in the slow cooker at about 3:30, and then had 3 1/2 hours to clean, hang out with Vivian, and make the dessert (triple-chocolate pudding cake from the Pillsbury Best of the BakeOff Desserts book -- so incredibly rich and gooey!).

Now, the only thing bad about having people over for dinner is that we have no dishwasher, other than Richard. So poor Rich spent a couple of hours after Michael & Kelly left washing out pots and pans, plates and bowls. But it was an awesome evening, complete with food, friends and fun.

And this weekend, we had another new development:

I wonder why this baby is chewing everything in sight?


Because she has TWO new teeth! Two bottom teeth are coming in together -- my little baby is growing up so fast!