Sunday Supper Backlog

Wow!  I've started the new year really neglecting the blog.

This month the school/work weeks have been busy.  The weekends have been focused on the usual.  *Clean the house
*Grocery shop
*Tackle another home improvement project.
We've been working on painting the office downstairs.  But no painting project is ever easy in this house.  This project involved wallpaper removal, painting trim that the previous owners didn't care to keep paint off of, and replacing outlet plugs the previous owners just painted over.  But it's almost done.  And I'll be able to post before and after photos later this week!

Although I've been behind on the blog front, we have been hosting some suppers for family this month.
My sister Becky came over last Sunday for dinner.
Gabe made this.  (It was a good way to use the turkey his company gave him as a Christmas gift.)  But we aren't sure the whole make-your-own-stock was really worth it.  I made roasted cauliflower from last months bon appetit magazine.  Supper yummy!  And I don't even really like cauliflower!

Tonight my sister Tricia and Travis are coming over.
Tricia and I are going to go through baby boy stuff we can pass along to their little man!  (He'll be arriving in May and we are very happy for them!)
Right now, I have a sauce on the stove simmering for this.  And Gabe is going to roast some brussel sprouts.
Should be good food and lots of fun to remember what life was like around here almost 3 & 1/2 years ago!

I sure hope the rest of the year doesn't fly by as fast as January did!

Sad Popeye

Two weekends in a row with Sunday Supper?  Gabe writing a blog post?  Cats and dogs living together...mass hysteria!  Tonight we had Jen and Rich over for their second Sunday Supper experience.  Again we made a Cook's Illustrated recipe, this time it was vegetarian lasagna.  Heidi and I had made this one time before and loved it.  We also though Jen, who doesn't eat meat, would love it, even though it has eggplant in it.

Veggie Lasagna - First Layer - What's Missing?

The lasagna is good stuff, summer squash, eggplant, tomato sauce, white sauce and tons of garlic and basil.  Oh, and apparently there's supposed to be spinach in it too.  The recipe calls for it, I bought it at the store.  Yet, the spinach didn't make it out of the crisper until the lasagna was in the oven.  Whoops.

Luckily, it turned out delicious.  The wilted spinach and garlic we had as a side dish was also good.  If you're interested, the recipe follows.  And don't forget the greens!

Vegetable Lasagna

From the episode: Vegetarian Pasta Night

Serves 8 to 10

We prefer the lasagna made with our favorite wholemilk, block-style mozzarella from Sorrento, but Kraft part-skim preshredded mozzarella is also fine. Our preferred brands of crushed tomato are Tuttorosso and Muir Glen.

Ingredients

No-Cook Tomato Sauce

• 1 28oz can crushed tomatoes
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves , minced
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

No-Cook Cream Sauce

• 4 ounces Parmesan cheese, grated (2 cups)
• 1 cup cottage cheese
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 teaspoon cornstarch
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper

Vegetable Filling

• 1 1/2 pounds eggplant, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes (about 7 cups)
•   Kosher salt and ground black pepper
• 1 pound zucchini, cut into 1/2-inch pieces (about 4 cups)
• 1 pound yellow squash, cut into 1/2-inch pieces (about 4 cups)
• 5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh thyme
• 12 ounces baby spinach (about 12 cups)

 

• 12 no-boil lasagna noodles
• 1/2 cup kalamata olives
• 12 ounces low-moisture whole-milk mozzarella cheese, shredded (about 3 cups)
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil

Instructions

• 1. FOR THE TOMATO SAUCE: Whisk all ingredients together in bowl; set aside.
• 2. FOR THE CREAM SAUCE: Whisk all ingredients together in bowl; set aside.
• 3. FOR THE FILLING: Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees. Toss eggplant with 1 teaspoon salt in large bowl. Line surface of large plate with double layer of coffee filters and lightly spray with vegetable oil spray. Spread eggplant in even layer over filters. Wipe out and reserve now-empty bowl. Microwave eggplant, uncovered, until dry to touch and slightly shriveled, about 10 minutes, tossing once halfway through to ensure that eggplant cooks evenly. Let cool slightly. Return eggplant to bowl and toss with zucchini and squash.
• 4. Combine 1 tablespoon oil, garlic, and thyme in small bowl. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add half eggplant mixture, ¼ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper; cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are lightly browned, about 7 minutes. Push vegetables to sides of skillet; add half of garlic mixture to clearing and cook, mashing with spatula, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir to combine garlic mixture with vegetables and transfer to medium bowl. Repeat with remaining eggplant mixture, 2 tablespoons oil, and remaining garlic mixture.
• 5. Return skillet to medium-high heat, add remaining teaspoon oil, and heat until shimmering. Add spinach and cook, stirring frequently, until wilted, about 3 minutes. Transfer spinach to paper towel–lined plate and drain 2 minutes. Stir into eggplant mixture.
• 6. TO ASSEMBLE: Spray 13 by 9-inch baking dish with vegetable oil spray. Spread 1 cup tomato sauce in bottom of baking dish; shingle 4 noodles on top of sauce. Spread half of vegetable mixture over noodles, followed by half of olives, half of cream sauce, and 1 cup of mozzarella. Repeat layering with 4 noodles, 1 cup tomato sauce, remaining vegetables, remaining olives, remaining cream sauce, and 1 cup mozzarella. Place remaining 4 noodles on top layer of cheese. Spread remaining 1 cup tomato sauce over noodles and sprinkle with remaining 1 cup mozzarella. Lightly spray large sheet of aluminum foil with vegetable oil spray and cover lasagna. Bake until -bubbling, about 35 minutes. Cool on wire rack 25 minutes. Cut into pieces, sprinkle with basil, and serve.

Warm Up to Turkey Day

Tonight's Sunday supper was sort of a warm up for Thanksgiving.

Gabe made chicken in a pot with thyme and a lemon sauce.  Yummy!  And to complete the meal I roasted some rings of delicata squash and cooked some banana fingerling potatoes in a pan with butter, salt and pepper.  It was an easy and delicious fall meal.  What really made it feel like Thanksgiving was the pumpkin pie and whipped cream our friends Drew and Paula brought over for dessert!

Just in case you're wondering...yes we've already had Drew and Paula over for supper.  We've gone through our short list of friends already and are now inviting people over for a second round to finish up the year.  (I think that's part of the reason we've been having trouble getting Sunday supper rolling again!  We sorta feel silly inviting people over again.) Oh well, I'm determined to finish up the year strong!

Squash Sunday Supper

I love fall for many reasons.  But a reason that is in the top 5 is...squash.
I love squash.
I love it so much my son informed me at lunch today, he didn't want squash.  He's tired of it.
But when I saw the New Seasons ad this week had a recipe for Squash & Bean Enchilada Casserole, I was instantly interested.

We invited my sister Becky over to enjoy it with us.
It was great!
And even my son, who earlier in the day informed me he was tired of squash, liked it!

1 cup onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
4 tsp Mexican seasoning (I just used some taco seasoning, cumin, and Mexican oregano.  And I didn't measure any of them.)
2 tsp salt
5 tbls olive oil
2 14oz cans black beans, rinsed and drained
3 1/2 cups enchilada sauce
12 corn tortillas
4 cups cooked squash, cubed then mashed  (We used a buttercup squash.)
28oz can diced tomatoes, drained
2 cups pepper jack cheese
(We also added 2 roasted poblano peppers to put on 1/2 of the casserole)
Sour cream and avocado for topping

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a large skillet over medium heat, saute onions and garlic with the Mexican seasoning and salt in olive oil until the onions are translucent.  In a medium bowl, combine onions with beans.  Spread a layer of enchilada sauce in the bottom of a baking dish.  Place a layer of tortillas (6) on top, followed by half the squash, half the bean and onion mixture, and half of the tomatoes.  Top these layers with 1 cup of pepper jack cheese and cover with enchilada sauce.  Repeat layering with remaining ingredients.
Cover and bake for about 25 minutes.  Remove cover and bake an additional 10 minutes.  Serve with sour cream and avocado to garnish.

We've been having a hard time getting Sunday Suppers going again.  Part of that is because we've had several friends return the invitation and join them for supper.  It's been nice to join our friends around their dinner tables too.

Sunday Swim and Supper

Two of us were able to have some fun this weekend, while the other one labored in the sun building our new deck.  Gabe has been working in the evenings all week and the entire weekend on the deck.  With needed (and much appreciated) help from friends and family, I'm happy to report it is very close to completion tonight.  I will post pictures and update the progress on the project tomorrow.

So with Gabe busy working, Levi and I kept ourselves busy this weekend with a trip to the zoo with Grandma G.

And we met friends to swim at the outdoor pool.  Levi LOVED this frog slide.  I literally could not get him to do anything else at the pool today!  He must have slid down it at least 100 times!

After playing at the pool, our friends came over to our house for supper.  Gabe stopped working long enough to BBQ some chicken and eat...so not the most fun Sunday Supper him.  But the rest of us had a good time!

Gabe has said he's pretty excited about going to work tomorrow so he can sit at his desk all day.  Too bad he'll have to come home and work some more!

Making a come back

Sort of...
I can't believe we haven't had a Sunday Supper in over a month!

Well, after that long hiatus, we had friends over for dinner tonight.  We threw some things on the BBQ and three boys played with every single toy we have (both inside and out).

Since it would have been impossible to capture those three active boys on film, I didn't even try.  But I did take a picture of the one thing I knew would hold still.  This is the blueberry cobbler I made for dessert.  Yummy!

Cobbler note:
I normally prefer a fruit crisp to a cobbler because whenever I've made cobbler the biscuits on top are raw and doughy (not yummy!).  Well, America's Test Kitchen has done it again.  They have perfected the cobbler.  Their secret is "briefly bake the fruit filling before adding the topping.  This helps to jump-start the cooking of the biscuits from underneath, resulting in a uniformly cooked biscuit and a perfect filling."
We agree!

Double Dinners

We haven't had a Sunday supper in FOREVER!  When I looked at the calendar and realized we didn't have a single supper gathering in May I was really disappointed.  But I guess that just shows how incredibly busy the month of May was around here!  This weekend we're trying to make up for all the suppers we've been too busy for this month by hosting two.

Saturday night Gabe invited his friend Doug (the guy he co-drove for in the rally last month), his wife and 6 year old son for dinner.  Levi was thrilled to have another big kid to play with and the boys spent most of the evening using the stair railing as a ramp for race cars to jump from.  For dinner Gabe smoked a pork loin with apple wood chips on the Bar-B-Que.  It had a really nice smoky flavor!

I made a southwest black bean salad from here.  It was really good.  Here's the recipe:

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 ears corn, kernels removed

1 15-oz can black beans, rinsed

1 tomato, cored, seeded and chopped

3 tablespoons fresh parsley, minced

2 scallions, sliced thinly

3 tablespoons fresh lime juice (about 2 limes)

1 1/2 teaspoons canned chipotle chiles in adobo sauce, minced

1/2 teaspoon honey

1 avocado, pitted, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch pieces

In a medium skillet, heat 1 tablespoon of the oil over medium heat then add the corn and cook for 6-8 minutes, or until golden brown, stirring frequently.  Transfer the corn to a large bowl and combine with the beans, tomato and parsley.  

In a small bowl, whisk together the scallions, lime juice, chipotle, honey, 1 tablespoon oil, 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper.  Pour over the salad and gently mix to coat.  Add the avocado, folding gently to incorporate, then season to taste with salt and pepper before serving.  

I really like the chipotle chiles in it.  Prefect amount of spice!

Tonight we hosted a dinner party/game night for my sister and Travis.  My mom took care of all the food. My Grandma Berke flew into town last night and my Grandpa and Grandma Girard came over too.  So it really was almost the whole family.  We were able to play a big game of Bunco and enjoy time with family we don't get to see nearly as much as we want to.  Thank goodness for special events that draw family together!

The looser table

The winner table

Balloons aren't just party decorations.  They are also used for play fights!

I have to put this one on too.  It's my favorite picture of Levi from Enzo and Finn's birthday party on Sunday morning.  Love the mid-air jump Levi is showing off.  He loved that bouncy house and didn't want to leave.

Great dinner guests

My Grandma and Grandpa Girard came over for supper tonight.

They don't live far but we don't get over to visit them as much as we should.  So I was happy when they excepted our invite to Sunday Supper.
We had some time to visit before supper was ready.  Levi made sure to show off plenty by spinning around in circles and introducing great Grandparents to all his cars and trains.

Gabe roasted another amazing piece of pork for dinner.

He rubbed it with rosemary, thyme and oregano.  And made a sauce to go with it inspired by this.  The meal was completed by some mashed potatoes, turnips and chives.  (I threw in some cream cheese and cream too.)  And my favorite, roasted asparagus.  I also cut up some strawberries and whipped up some cream for dessert.  My son has a new found love of whipped cream.  After he finished his strawberries he insisted he was still hungry but declined Gabe's offers for more pork, asparagus and fruit.  So he had some oranges...with whipped cream!  His dad's idea.  Not mine!

Sunny Sunday Supper

I had this great plan to create an Earth day post along with our Sunday supper this week.

But this weekend has been pretty much non-stop activity and I'm exhausted.  The weather has been amazing and the last thing I wanted to do was put together a thoughtful post about the Earth.  I figure enjoying the sunshine was probably the best thing we could do to celebrate the Earth any way.

(But if you want a glimpse at what I was planning, do a little research in how bad eating meat (and dairy) is for the environment.  Here are some articles to get you started.)

We think buying our pork (and lamb) from Gabe's Aunt Jaki helps our footprint since her animals are treated like pets and their place is 2 hours away.  But we've decided to try and limit our meat consumption.  Clearly we'll have to work on dairy next!

That was the amount of cheese that went into tonights supper.
I decided when trying to feed 2 & 1/2 year old boys it's not really the time to try an ambitious truly meat and dairy free meal.  So we made this for Sunday supper today.  It is hands down the most perfect macaroni and cheese recipe.  Just not the most eco-friendly!
As you can see, the Weisserts joined us for dinner on this beautiful evening.  We even got to eat dinner outside!

Here's my attempt to get a shot of the little boys sporting their Lightening t-shirts.  But there were so many other things they would have rather been doing than posing for photos!

We'll keep working on the whole meat and dairy free eating.
And the bathroom photos will finally be coming later this week!  Gabe has to paint the new baseboard some evening this week if he's feeling up to it.  He starts a new job tomorrow so we'll see how it goes.

Spicy Sunday Supper

We're finally getting back into the Sunday supper swing of things.
So glad!
I've missed it.

This evening Mike and Sharon joined us for dinner.  Gabe spent some time cleaning up the barbecue yesterday afternoon and he fired it up for the first time this "year".  Some chicken thighs smothered in  Gabe's favorite buffalo sauce (he's found it bottled at New Seasons...no surprise) came off the grill perfectly.  I wanted to make a side dish that felt sorta like bar food but without the need to deep fry.  So, I made these to go along with the spicy chicken.  Highly recommend them!  What a yummy dinner.
Then to top it off...Mike and Sharon brought an interesting (and delicious) twist on floats for dessert.  Levi had the traditional root beer float.  But us adults had this as our floating liquid instead.  Good stuff and good friends.

Tex-Mex & Vegetarian

We invited my dear friend from college, Mindy and her husband (and also one of Gabe's co-workers) Mark, over for dinner tonight.

When accepting our invitation, Mindy warned me that they've recently decided to eat vegetarian and she hoped that wouldn't be too much trouble.  I assured her it was not.  Gabe and I have often discussed the heath benefits, and ecological benefits, of vegetarian eating.  But then I realize there is no way I could give up both sushi and bacon for the REST OF MY LIFE!

In thinking about what veggie dishes to make, I immediately thought of soup.  (That might be because it's almost spring and we had snow falling this week.  It might also be because I went to see Wicked with my mom and Becky this afternoon and I knew Gabe needed something easy to put together for dinner tonight.)  Well, Gabe convinced me that we should do something "Mexicanish".  Probably because we didn't make any other Mexican inspired meals this week and he's going through withdrawals! So, we compromised with Tex-Mex.  

I made corn bread from scratch this morning.  Which, I've never actually made before.  The Jiffy mixes are just too cheap, easy and yummy to bother with making it myself!  But I wanted to try something new so I tried out this recipe.  These veggies (along with corn) go into the bread.  It was great!

Gabe made his favorite vegetarian chili.  It's been made at Monday Guys Night on many occasions but I've been resistant to trying it because it just seems weird.  Oranges in chili just doesn't seem quite right.  But it's really yummy.  Especially for those who love things "sweet" like me!

It's always sad to say good-bye to the weekend...
But I only have 4 more days until SPRING BREAK!
I think I can do it.

-h (Gabe edited and uploaded pictures for me while I folded laundry!)

sunday suppers return

I feel like it's been forever since we've hosted our Sunday Supper and this is going to be quick.
(I'll have to stop by with pictures of Levi later this week for the Grandmother readers.)

We had Bryan and his girlfriend Jackie over for dinner tonight.
Gabe made this pork roast and gravy.  And I made these mashed sweet potatoes.  Both were super yummy.  I did modify the potatoes slightly by adding some heavy cream.  Heavy cream makes everything a bit yummier.  I think I also added too much rosemary.  Levi loves sweet potatoes but didn't really like them all fancy.  I think the rosemary was too much for him.  He had broccoli instead.

After dinner, Levi had fun showing off on his bike and building crazy Lego creations with our guests.  Once Levi was in bed we got out the game the Morrisons sent Gabe for his birthday gift.  We played it for the first time last night and I beat Gabe.  Tonight, Gabe was the victor.

I've got laundry to fold and a new book club book to start...

Birthday Trifecta

Happy Birthday Gabe, Tricia and Travis!

In celebration of the day he was born, Gabe and I have a birthday date for dinner tomorrow night.

Happy (early) 33rd Birthday Gabe!

supper(s) away

We didn't host a Sunday supper this week.  But that doesn't mean we didn't spend some great time with friends and family!  That really is the point of our weekly meal gathering after all.
On Saturday evening we had dinner with friends at the Freitas house.  Levi, Finn and Enzo had a great time playing together and chasing Taya around.  Here she is hiding from the boys (and the camera too).

 

Levi probably enjoyed baby Evan the most.  Evan will be 4 months next week and Levi loved making him smile and giggle.  Baby smiles are a wonderful thing!

 

Tonight we didn't host a supper at our house because we wanted to visit Tricia and Travis' new place.  They haven't been in their new town house long but they've already put a lot of work into it.  It was great to see them, enjoy a nice dinner and see their new home.  We're very happy for them and are looking forward to celebrating in June on their wedding day!

Next week we get to celebrate birthdays!  Gabe, Tricia and Travis all have their birthday in early March so the big party will be next week.
We will get back to hosting Sunday suppers after the March birthday celebration.  I'm looking forward to it!

Baked Ziti

We made one of our favorite vegetarian meals tonight.  Our friend Jen is vegetarian and she LOVES cheese, so I knew this would be the perfect thing to make for her and her boyfriend Rich.
We use the Cook's Illustrated recipe.  They don't make their recipes available without a subscription so I'll share it with you:

Rescuing Baked Ziti
Ingredients:
1 pound whole mild or 1% cottage cheese
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
3 oz grated Parmesan (about 1 1/2 cups)
Salt
1 pound ziti (we can never find ziti at the grocery store so we use rigatoni.  Penne would also work well.  We could probably find ziti here but it's not really worth the extra trip for us.)
5 tablespoons olive oil
5 garlic cloves pressed through garlic press
1 (28oz) can of tomato sauce
1 (14.5 oz) can of diced tomatoes (we use the tomatoes we canned from our garden)
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons chopped FRESH basil leaves
1 teaspoon sugar
Ground black pepper
3/4 teaspoons cornstarch
1 cup heavy cream (or whole milk but we ALWAYS use cream)
8 oz low-moisture mozzarella cut into 1/4 inch pieces (about 1 1/2 cups

1.  Heat oven to 350 degrees.
Whisk cottage cheese, eggs, and 1 cup Parmesan together in medium bowl; set aside
Bring 4 quarts of water to boil in large dutch oven over high heat.
Stir in 1 tablespoon salt and pasta; cook, stirring occasionally, until pasta begins to soften but is not yet cooked through 5-7 minutes.
Drain pasta and leave in colander.
Do not wash dutch oven.

2.  Meanwhile, heat oil and garlic in a 12 in skillet over medium heat until garlic is fragrant but not brown, about 2 minutes.
Stir in tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, and oregano; simmer until thickened, about 10 minutes.
Off heat, stir in 1/2 cup basil and sugar, then season with salt and pepper.

3.  Stir cornstarch into heavy cream in small bowl; transfer mixture to now-empty dutch oven set over medium heat.  Bring to a simmer and cook until thickened, 3-4 minutes.
Remove pot from head and add cottage cheese mixture, 1 cup tomato sauce and 3/4 cup mozzarella, then stir to combine.
Add pasta and stir to coat thoroughly with sauce.

4.  Transfer pasta mixture to 13X9 inch baking dish and spread remaining tomato sauce evenly over pasta.  Sprinkle remaining 3/4 cup mozzarella and remaining 1/2 cup Parmesan over the top.
Cover baking dish with foil and bake for 30 minutes.

5.  Remove foil and continue cooking until cheese is bubbling and beginning to brown, about 30 minutes longer.
Cool for 20 minutes.
Sprinkle with the rest of the basil.
ENJOY!!!

And just because these lovely tulips Jen and Rich brought for us made me long for spring, I'll share them with you.

Super Sunday Supper

That's what we call a Super Bowl feast!
Snacks, ribs and beer.
And of course friends and football.

Gabe's former co-worker Drew, and his wife Paula, came over today to watch the game and enjoy some good eats.  Gabe used this rib recipe.  He had the spice rub on the ribs last night and then braised them in the oven for more than two hours this afternoon.  They were awesome!  I just wish I wouldn't have eaten so many snacks...I would have had room for more ribs.
Levi sure did enjoy watching his first Super Bowl game!

Taste of India

We took a bit of an easy way out for supper tonight.

We bought a tub of Indian coconut curry simmer sauce at Costco last month and we put it to use tonight.  My sister Becky was invited to join us for dinner and I know she loves Indian food so it seemed like the perfect fit.  Easiest Sunday supper to date!  All we had to do was throw some cubed up chicken breast into the simmer sauce and let it do it's thing for 15 minutes.  The sauce was good.  I think we'll get it again and put lamb in it instead of chicken.

Gabe and I did want to try making an Indian side dish too.  So we made this.  It was good.  It was spicy.  And our version was missing the cilantro (I forgot to put it on the shopping list this morning).  I think next time we make it we'll do two eggplants instead of one.  As you can see from the picture, there's a lot of onion in it but not enough eggplant for our liking.

I guess I should also mention that Levi refused to eat both dishes.  So he had left over mac and cheese for Sunday Supper this week.  He's usually a really great eater but would have nothing to do with the chicken and rice.  Oh, well.  Maybe next time!

An Old Classic

We made this for supper tonight.  It's a great chicken and rice casserole recipe, minus the can of cream of chicken soup.  Here's the finished product:

It was delicious!  Alexis and Eric (our guests this week) totally agreed.  Well, at least they said they did...

We did make a few small changes to the recipe.

We used long grain brown rice and had to increase the amount of stock we put in.  We also had to increase the cooking time another thirty minutes.  (So total cooking time was an hour and 15 minutes.)

I also made a some sautéed spinach.  Wasn't anything fancy but I thought it went well with the creamy chicken and rice.

Levi's spinach "snake tongue",

After dinner we had some fun playing Legos.

I'm really enjoying the restful, yet productive, weekends we've had so far this year.  As much as I enjoy the holidays, this is pretty nice too.

Clean Up

I know the this is going to be my least favorite part of Sunday supper.
I hate dishes!
Maybe I should just hire a house keeper to come Monday morning and do it for me.

We had a wonderful supper tonight.
Dave and Carley were our special guests this evening.  Their little bundle of joy is due in about a month and a half so I wanted to make sure we had them over before their schedule gets 1,000 times more complicated.  We are so happy for them.  I just hope we didn't bore them too much with our expert parenting advice.
Gabe made a wonderful leg of lamb.  (Tom and Joanne, it was better than the one he made at Christmas so we'll have to try it again when you're here.)
I made mashed potatoes and parsnips with goat cheese from this cookbook.
My mom gave me the cookbook years ago but this was the first thing I've made from it.  (Sorry Mom!)
The potatoes were really good so I think we should try one of the main dish recipes as well.  Another future Sunday supper!

Since we've now successfully completed two Sunday suppers, I'm a bit frustrated by the lack of photographic evidence I have.  Trying to time dinner just right is a big challenge.  Trying to photograph it is going to be another.

Introducing: Sunday Supper

I hate the word "resolution".  I'm not really sure why but when I think about the new year and all the things I'd like to intentionally do differently, I hate to say I'm making a "resolution".  So instead, Gabe and I set some goals for the year.  We have some large house projects we want to get done this year.  (A complete transformation of the bathroom downstairs, new deck and back yard landscaping, and finally painting our office.)  Gabe is going to intentionally set aside time (probably Sunday between 11-4) to work on his car project.  And we've also decided to host a Sunday Supper every week.

The idea for Sunday Supper came to me after our holiday party where I found myself talking to friends we don't see nearly enough and saying to almost every one of them, "We need to have you over to dinner again some time."  See, we use to have friends over for dinner all the time.  Then you-know-who came along and it just seemed like too much work.  But really, it's not.  And I've missed having people at our house on a regular basis.  I feel like I've sort of withdrawn from relationships I use to really enjoy and I'm not really sure why.  So this year we hope to reconnect with friends and family and try some new recipes along the way.

I'm not sure how much I'll share about our Sunday Suppers on here.  This blog started as a way for Gabe and I to force ourselves to use our camera more often.  It's evolved into a record of our lives, mostly a place where certain grandmothers can get their Levi fix.  I'm not really sure where the documentation of our Sunday Suppers really fits into that.  I guess we might post some pictures, we might post some recipes.  But neither Gabe nor I are recipe creators.  We just know how to execute a recipe...really well in my opinion.

Since we just finished our first Sunday Supper I will share about it.

We were fortunate that Gabe's friend Ross could join us for dinner tonight.  He might be moving to Holland so I thought it would be good for us to have him over sooner rather than miss our chance.  When Gabe and Ross worked together (and when we lived in our old house on the east side of town) we use to hang out with Ross quite a bit.  It's always funny to me how they revert to 12 year old boy behavior when they're together.
For dinner, I made home made guacamole. (Which I'm embarrassed to admit I've actually never made before.  It's just too easy to get avocado and those seasoning mixes they have conveniently laying right next to the avocados at the store.)  Well, I will probably always be making it myself now because it's just 1,000,000 times better!
Gabe made this.  My husband is a huge fan of Mexican food (and Rick's recipes) so it was a fitting thing to make for our first Sunday Supper.  It was spicy and yummy.

The filling of the tacos (onion, garlic, roasted poblano peppers, spinach, and chicken stock).  A few more things are added later...