The Entertainer

Since I was in high school I have dreamt about having a house full of friends having a good time and eating good food.  Of course this house is mine and the food was prepared by me, from the cute appetizers to sweet treats and they are all beautifully arranged on my fun serving wear!  Now added to that dream, is feeding people vegan food, and having them love it while they oooh and ahhh over how good it tastes!  Though this dream will eventually become a reality, I have had a few glimpses this month as I have taken on the roll of hostess!  My sister is getting married in October, and as her matron of honor (I know, sounds so old, but I guess it is better than being a maid, and at least it's in honor right!?) I threw her a bridal shower.  I came up with the food, decorations and games all by myself *pull up 'big girl' panties and cross arms* Okay, I had some help setting up from my mom and some family, but pretty much I tackled it all.  At first I was excited as my dream of hosting danced in my head.  A small get together with some food and games, no big deal.  I was excited as I wrote down all the fun and colorful food I was going to make.  Then after talking with my mom, I realized that the list of food would feed probably 50 plus people and take two days to prepare, oh and didn't really include foods that my some-what-picky sister would eat.  So we reworked the menu to be less time intensive and cater to the Bride-to-Be's pallet.  Nonetheless, as the day approached, I was getting more and more stressed.  I was beginning to wonder if I could pull this all off.  I felt like I was drowning in details even though it was really just a small get together!  How could I go through planning my wedding with out getting so stressed out, and here I was planning a bridal shower for 15 people at a park with mid-afternoon snacks, and I was about ready to pull my hair out!  I was beginning to wonder why I thought this whole party throwing was dreamy and fun.  I was beginning to think that I never wanted to throw a party again!  But, as usual the whole thing turned out perfect (except for the wind that kept blowing the table clothes off the tables).  Tough the menu was not entirely vegan, it was vegetarian.  However, the star of the table were my vegan cupcakes!  My sister asked where I bought them, and everyone raved about how great they tasted.  My uncle even wanted the recipe as he downed two in a row!  Though it was stressful, the end result was worth it as my sister and everyone had a really great time.  I realized that I was just new to the experience and was ready to tackle the next one with my new found "party-throwing" skills!

Food spread, yum!

The pretty pink cupcakes

Though not in quite the same magnitude, last weekend we had some friends over for breakfast, and later that night I had a friend over for dinner.  Now for most people, this may be normal.  But in our small apartment it doesn't happen very often and it kind of a big deal! (We have to re-arrange our 'piles' of 'stuff' so that we can have room to actually sit at our table.)  For breakfast we had lots of delicious fresh fruit and my becoming-famous vegan aebleskivers (Danish pancake balls).  My great-grandparents were from Denmark, so it is a traditional treat we make in our family and fun to show off to others :~)  My blueberry filled aelbskivers were a hit and the berries we had with them were delicious as well!

Finished aebleskivers in the aebleskiver pan

For dinner that night, I was excited to try a recipe I found in a store in Portland called Penzeys Spices for grilled protabella mushrooms with chipotle mayonnaise.  The recipe is inspired by the chipotle powder that I bought in the store that has a wonderful spicy-smokey smell.  I made some modifications to the recipe to make it vegan (mainly changing the mayonnaise to nayonaise), but the results were delicious!  I usually grill my mushroom whole with an Italian dressing marinade, but this recipe used a different marinade and called for protabella slices.  Add the chipotle nayonaise a few avocado slices, a tomato slab and some lettuce, and you have the best burger I have ever tasted!  My friend agreed that they chipotle nayonaise was delicious.  Just enough kick with a little smokey aftertaste!  (If you love to cook and have never been in a Penzeys Spices store, then you are missing out!  A whole store for just spices, who knew!  I was in love at first sight.  They even have a cook book!)

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Week re-cap

So, I have been busy and it's been late by the time I have time to write, so I haven't had time to catch up, and well tonight isn't that much different, but I want to at least write a little bit.

First off, I have used my Netti Pot a few times, and I think it is helping.  My face doesn't hurt as bad a night and I feel like I can breath better when I sleep.  Now it's not the prettiest process, and you have to have your head in the correct position so that the salt solution doesn't run out your mouth.  I have also found that my sinuses drain differently.  When my left nostril is down, and the water is running out that side, it runs in a stream.  When my right nostril is down, it barely drips, then starts to drip more, then finally starts into a thin stream.  I'm not sure why the difference or if it is bad, but it is interesting.

Lets see...now the week in a nut shell....
Wednesday, First I helped a friend move, which made me very aware of my soar muscles from the workout the day before.  Then, I worked and had a project to work on.  Sorting through old files.  Though it sounds kind of dull, it was nice having something to do, and it is organizing so I don't mind it :)  However, I got sidetracked working on a brochure for volleyball private lessons becasue I am so excited to start them up!  I still haven't finished, but I want to get it done this week.  Right after work it was off to the volleyball academy for four hours.  I had fun as always, and got to play some a the end too!  Oh, and I found out my community garden plot was ready!

Thursday was a bit frustrating.  I got up early to meet people at the garden I am volunteering at, and no one showed!  On top of that, the people in charge weren't even there so I didn't know what to do!  And because I rode my bike, I didn't want to turn around and go home, so I hand watered for two hours and only covered about 1/3 of the garden.  Then a guy in charge showed up and told me that I didn't have to hand water becasue they have soak er hoses...ugghhh!  When I got home I was in no mood to work out, but I made myself go on a run anyway.  It was a long slow process and I had "just keep swimming, swimming, swimming" from Finding Nemo stuck in my head which eventually turned into "just keep going, going, going....you're almost done, done done!"  For lunch I met my husband, mother-in-law, niece and nephew in the park.  It was fun, but I was still in a bad mood.  Then it was off to my mom's to help my sister work on her invitations for her wedding.  But it turned out that she didn't have all the stuff we needed, so I made 6 invitations and that was it. *Sigh*  I stopped at the store on the way home to get stuff to make pesto and had a veggie pesto pasta with gluten free rice pasta that was really yummy!  Feeling better with some good food in my tummy, I headed off to little kid volleyball camp which also helped cheer me up, so I came home in a good mood :)

Friday I had some room to breath.  I used it to do some fun things for me!  I made mini cupcakes for Dave at DSK for his birthday and decorated them with frosting and they were super cute and tasty (see pics below)!  And I got to eat my lunch in the sunshine :)  Volleyball academy was a little slow.  Not many girls, hot day and first day off from school.  However, Dave let me run B academy by myself!  So cool.  Unfortunately because of the lack of girls and hot weather, I came home with a lot of cupcakes.  I gave some away, but some are still sitting in the kitchen.  My sister even liked them, and I am having visions of bridal shower cupcakes dancing through my head!

                                                             Before frosting them

                                                                      and after :)

That's all for tonight, time for some beauty rest!  More on the weekend tomorrow!

Good night and good health!