Friendsgiving!

Our first friendsgiving potluck took place last Saturday and was a smashing success. Food and drinks and toys and kids and chatter everywhere, a cozy fire outside, a soul music playlist...seriously, such a great way to kick off the start of the holiday season.

 T and I invited several of our favorite friends and their kids to come party potluck style the Saturday before Thanksgiving. I took care of the main dish in addition to preparing a couple simple sides and an appetizer. We bought a few 6 packs and some soft drinks, made a boozy apple cranberry punch and pretty much relied on our party to fall together. And it totally did.

I made these bomb chicken thighs with chorizo and orange zest (no potatoes this time), a green salad, delish green beans with garlic, pine nuts and basil, minestrone and a bruchetta appetizer. Our guests came through with a cheese and cracker plate, creamed corn, cranberry brie bites, two macaroni and cheeses (!) and lots of different desserts and drinks.

After most people had eaten (we kept it casual - it wasn't a sit down dinner or anything), we made smores and had drinks by the fire.

It was such a chill, nice evening. Can't wait for next year's! Here are some tips I've learned that might help for planning your own friendsgiving, or large gatherings in general:

• Don't try and be a hero. Make what is feasible for you and rely on friends to help out. We specified on our invite that guests were to bring a side, app, dessert or drink to share. As the hostess I was able to make a big main dish and regular sized sides knowing that our guests were going to contribute. 
• Pick easy dishes and dishes that you can prep in advance. I had my minestrone done in a flash earlier that day. I also parboiled my green beans and had the garlic for them minced so that before our people arrived I could saute them together really quickly and serve warm. The main chicken dish took hardly any attention at all - you basically throw some things together and forget about it while it bakes.
• Clean your kitchen as you go! And make sure before you begin cooking that your dishwasher is empty.
• Fire! Build a fire outside if you have the means. There's literally no better tool to get your guests gathered together and chatting. Everyone wants to be by the fire. Plus, smores.
• Make a good playlist!With songs that people like; ones that are easy to listen to. I love Led Zeppelin and Wu Tang but that's not the best music to have conversations over. For this party I went with a 60s/70s soul vibe and picked the songs myself. You can listen here, or Spotify has a bunch of great playlists available.
• Let things go and have fun. People will move your flower centerpiece arrangements in order to talk with the people across from them. Kids will drag toys into the living room, wine will spill....whatever. Have a good time and deal with it tomorrow. :)

Happy holidays!

Christmas 2014

My favorite thing in life is to gather with the people I love to eat, drink and be merry, so naturally the holiday season is my jam.

This year we bought a $20 tree from the grocery store because Christmas tree farm trees are just stupid expensive. And I think it looks at least as lovely as any $100 farm tree.

 

 

 

 Every year over Thanksgiving dinner (this is how food-centered my family is!) we discuss what we'll make for Christmas dinner. We like to go all out with holiday food and never do the traditional turkey and potatoes or anything like that. We always go for all the way homemade and it's almost always Italian. This year we decided on Nana Stizzo's roast cooked in tomato sauce and pasta. The day before Christmas Eve my sisters, parents and I made fettuccini to be dried and saved for our Christmas dinner. Despite the photos, Van actually was not very helpful to the process.

We enjoyed a ham dinner on the Eve at T's dad's house. I made these bomb-ass potatoes. Van was gifted some Lincoln Logs and a Daniel Tiger stuffed animal that says "Hi Neighbor!" and "Do you want to make believe with me?". He loves it. And the farm dog figure that comes with the Lincoln Logs...the logs themselves mostly piss him off because he has a hard time matching up the ends. :)

After dinner and the exchange of gifts we headed to my friend's parents' house for some drinks, desserts and SANTA. I love that Santa shows up at this annual Christmas party for a bit because it'll be a cold day in hell when I wait in some mall line to pay $ for a picture of my kid on Santa's lap. Nope, no thank you.

singing carols with auntie kristel, waiting for santa

he told santa he wanted candy for Christmas. last year he asked santa if he knew how to play Christmas songs on the piano.

Christmas morning was fun, but rushed. I really need to remedy this for next year. Tony's mom's family gets together for Christmas day brunch/lunch which is really gnarly for us because we are such late birds. We basically force V out of bed each year, rush him through gift opening at our house, run him across the street to my parents house for a gift exchange, and run him back home to change so we can get out the door and to T's family's event. He's a really good sport about it, but next year I'm going to advocate for a little more time to ourselves Christmas morning so Van can relax and eat breakfast and play with his cool new stuff before having to put everything away to go to see T's family. I'll figure something out!

Nonetheless, he really enjoyed himself.

After brunch and games with T's family we headed to my parents' house to enjoy the fruits of our pasta making labor a few days before. It was as good as we hoped it would be. I had so much fun playing Heads Up at brunch that I made some of my family play it on Christmas night. We exchanged gifts with my sisters, ate hella food, and drank a bunch of wine...good times. The best times, really.

playing grocery store with granddad and his new cart and "food" from aunt rachel

Still Crazy After All These (3) Years: Van's Birthday

Little Vanny turned three last month, a few days before Christmas. As has been tradition, we threw him a little, no gifts tamale party with our immediate families and few closest friends. My family has always made tamales the weekend or so before Christmas, so it's worked out really well to just invite over a few more people, add a cake and make a little Van celebration out of it.

A few weeks before his birthday I asked Van if he wanted a themed party since he's getting up there in age and might be into something like that. He told me he just wanted a "guitar party." Ok, kid.

So I whipped up a Woodstock-esque invitation and printed them out to be mailed. I bought the few kids that would be in attendance bubbles in a guitar shaped container and little guitar Christmas ornaments, ordered a big Mylar guitar balloon from Amazon and cut out images of Jimi Hendrix and Jerry Garcia to use as cupcake toppers. Bam! Guitar party!

He had the best time. Tony and I got him a play kitchen that we revealed to him that morning, which he was completely stoked on. My sister bought him a chef's hat and oven glove, some little stainless steel looking pans with a whisk and wooden spoon. He spent his day running around, eating food, cooking in his new kitchen and being a little three year old animal.

Van is the best little kid in the world and I hope his third trip around the sun is his best yet. :)

Pumpkin Patchin It

Last week I took Friday off to take Van to the pumpkin patch. It's funny how holidays really make me freak out about how fast time flies by and how big my kid is getting. If it wasn't so fun, I'd seriously sob.

Anyways. We had a good time.

When you are almost three, everything is the coolest. We'd have to work so hard to tear Van away from one thing and convince him to try something else, then repeat that. All day long. He loved this "Fort-a-lot-a-fun". Basically a wood deck.

Slidin slides...

Feeding goats...

Eating Dippin Dots for the first time EVER...

Hiding in Jack o' Lanterns...

Taking selfies on the train...

Measuring growth...

 

Riding horses...



Picking pumpkins (I love how he wanted a green and white one)...

And being cranky.  There was a zipline for bigger kids and adults near where the hay ride line began and ended. Van was SO pissed that he couldn't go on! He definitely didn't get that daredevil gene from me. We told him he couldn't go on it because he was too little, but maybe he could next year. That didn't go over well, but Tony cheered him up.

Bishops Pumpkin Patch, you sure are adorable. See you next year!

Your Mom Likes Songs

Here's a playlist for all the mamas, be they a little bit country or a little bit gansta rap.


Mamas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Cowboys, Willie Nelson

Rag Mama Rag, The Band

 

Take Your Mama Out All Night, Scissor Sisters

 

Mama Said Knock You Out, LL Cool J

Mama Told Me Not to Come, Three Dog Night

Mommy's Little Monster, Social Distortion

Mama Tried, Merle Haggard (The Grateful Dead do a good version of this too)

Dear Mama, Tupac

Mother, Danzig

 

Hey Me Hey Mama, Ray Lamontagne

 

Tell Me Mama, Jackie Greene

Happy Mother's Day, ya'll!

Halloween Head

i'm definitely not big on Halloween. I don't like painting my face or wearing slutty polyester costumes that come in plastic bags. I don't have a big sweet tooth, so a pillowcase full of random fun sized candies isn't necessary. i don't like to be scared and i don't like to look at gross things.

i do like this ryan adam's song:

 and i do like the pumpkin patch tradition. this year we took van to bisphops in wheatland, just like we did last year. he had a blast. so crazy to think that last year when we went he was only 10 months old. he couldn't even walk! this year he's almost a full blown kid that could do big kid things - like eat French fries, go down slides unassisted, sit by himself on trains, pick pumpkins and attempt to smooch on goats.

we've had such a busy October that a Halloween costume for van was just not in the forefront of my mind. a day or two before Halloween, i decided he'd make a damn cute little greaser. we rolled his jeans and added some hair gel and bam! kenickie!

           

van thinks applesauce is a dessert treat, and i'd kinda like to keep it that way for as long as possible. we took him to my friend's parents house, to my parent's house and my aunt and uncle's house around the block. he shared a twix with tony and had a lollipop with my cousins. he scored handful of small bags of m&ms and some smarties which we will use for potty treats and as a special dessert on nights when he eats all his dinner.

              

hope you all had a great Halloween! if anyone has or has heard of any cool EASY costume ideas i'd love to see them. while we pulled it off this year, i'd like to maybe have some semblance of an idea for van more than two days before Halloween for next year. :)