Entertaining

I have finally done enough unpacking to feel comfortable inviting some people over to my house. The apartment is still not stranger-ready, really, but it is looking good enough to have friends over. Woohoo!

On Friday of this past weekend, I had two other single moms from my childrens' school over with their kids. I am glad I have the bigger apartment to accomodate 3 moms and 6 kids (mostly the 6 kids--they need a lot of space!). I got out my cool appetizer platter and put roasted garlic hummus in the center, then piled sun-dried tomato and basil Wheat Thins, baby carrots, olives, pickles, dried plums and a spicy nut mix. I gave the kids some veggie sticks, which sound healthy, but is really just slightly healthier junk food. Many of them came in and ate pickles, olives and baby carrots, too, though. One 6 year old boy even drank some of the pickle juice! Just a little bit, because we wanted to see if he really would like it. He said it was good, but he didn't clamor for more when it was done ;-).

For dinner we had chickpeas and yukon gold potatoes cooked in a store bought vindaloo sauce that was actually nicely spicy. I find that a lot of store-bought sauces are too bland for me, but this one had a definite kick. We had brown basmati rice cooked with bombay saffron rice spice and Thai green beans from Trader Joe's. I was worried that it wouldn't be enough food, but many of the children were too busy playing to eat much, so I had plenty of leftovers to enjoy.

I had so much fun having people over on Friday that I did it again on Saturday. This time I invited my friend Mandy, her 11 year old daughter and one of her neices, A. My daughter has been wanting to do more with A for some time, but she goes to a different school, and I am not friends with her mother, so we don't see them very often. This time we were pretty casual. We had some hummus and flatbread for an appetizer, and I made a pasta with carmelized cauliflower recipe from the most recent issue of Vegetarian Times. (Have I ever mentioned how much I love that magazine? There is always something in there that I want to make, usually more than one thing. In this same issue is a wonderful looking vegan moussaka, which I am going to make sometime when I have more time available. And some adorable cranberry molds I am going to use to replace my gelatin based cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving, as mentioned below.) Everyone ate at least some of the dish, which I consider a success with picky pre-teen girls.

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On another note, I was mistaken, the children will be with me for Thanksgiving this year! There are definitely some times when I am glad to be wrong. I am still doing most of my cooking at home, though, and avoiding the smoke.

Thanksgiving menu, so far

You mean it isn't a requirement to make too much food on Thanksgiving? I never got that memo ;-).

Appetizers:
Spinach dip with wheat thins (made with Tofutti sour cream and Nayonnaise)
Dill dip and rye bread (ditto above)
hummus stuffed cherry tomatoes
veggies, maybe with hidden valley ranch dip (is that vegan?)

Main meal:

My neighbor is going to bring a nut loaf and mashed potatoes
Punk rock chick pea gravy from Vegan with a Vengeance or mushroom gravy
Vegetarian sausage, apple and walnut stuffing
Sweet potato casserole
Steamed green beans with minced onion
Candied carrots with dried cranberries
Nutmeg mushrooms
Cranberry molds from the latest Vegetarian Times magazine, because my normal cranberry relish uses jell-o, which is obviously not vegetarian

Dessert:

Pecan pie, not vegan, because it has eggs
Cranberry upside down cake, recipe from a blog somewhere that I have favorited at home
Some kind of non-dairy vanilla ice cream

I think I might be forgetting something. I go a little crazy over Thanksgiving, :-D

This may or may not be on Thanksgiving. I may do this with a group of friends the following weekend, and take a smaller amount of food to my parents' house for the day itself. What I am not going to do is spend all day at my parent's house cooking while my dad makes the turkey and their yucky stuffing but otherwise everyone sits in a different room watching tv and ignoring me. If my neighbor stays in town, I am hosting the meal on Thanksgiving and inviting my family, although they may not come since I am not making a turkey. My kids are going to be at their dad's house this year anyway, so I am not subjecting myself to all that. Plus, the cigarette smoke! Yuck-o.

The Egg Thing is Creeping Me Out

As I mentioned before, I really like eggs. So much, I decided to just give in and declare eggs a part of my diet for now. But I am wondering if I should change my mind again. Not because I don't like them, but because I really, really like them. Maybe a bit too much.

I am not kidding, I fantasize about eating eggs these days. I am averaging 2 per day, but yesterday I ate 3. I make one in the morning, and then I have to make another one, because I am just not satisfied. When I am hungry, I start thinking about how good those eggs are, and I can even feel the texture in my mouth, along with the taste. This does not seem right to me.

I seem to remember reading somewhere that people often crave foods that are actually bad for them, but I am too lazy right now to go search for the link. I mean, foods that you are allergic to, not just the generic bad stuff we all crave, like candy and potato chips. It is starting to make me wonder about these eggs, because it seems like such a weird thing to crave all the time. But, I don't want to give them up! I love them!

See what I mean? It's kind of creepy.