hospitaliano

Ever since I found out we are hosting Christmas Eve, I have been wondering what our plan is going to be. I love my mom, but she is not really keen on having visitors over. It is always a huge ordeal the weeks, days, hours, prior and then for the duration of the visit, wondering when they will leave. I'm hoping for it to be different this time, especially if my sister and I help out a lot. Let's not even get into how wonderful it is to not have to go out to the high desert at all this year. That is a celebration unto itself. Being fortunate enough to have most of my family within 15 minutes of each other on Christmas Eve is even more amazing, but the cherry on top is I can sneak off to bed whenever I am ready.

We usually eat tamales or ham or some other traditional stuff, but I was secretly hoping that as hosts we wouldn't have to do the majority of the cooking- so that I could actually have some holiday kitchen time. Yesterday we talked about doing a bbq if the weather was nice enough (usually is!), but ribs, steaks, etc instead of burgers and hot dogs, fancier bbq if you will. As of tonight it is going to be Italian, or more like what passes for Italian in America. I have not been to Italy but I am pretty sure it does not taste anything like the Olive Garden. However I am going to keep my critique to myself because if the omnivores order out, that means I can make spinach lasagne and some roasted veggies and this totally gross-good looking pizza dip I saw in family circle. I'm also thinking of doing a soup since I am sure we will also have salads. Of course there will be desserts and a door prize too. It's a good thing I was already planning on going wine shopping this week, now I won't look so bad buying a case since it is "for the party".

Now I have to decide what to wear- torn between dressing super nice and being a classy hostess or staying comfy and casual since it's just family and I am going to be home after all. It really will depend on how long I take with cooking I guess-the more do-ahead recipes I can find, the better my outfit will be.

holi-daze

While at Target this afternoon I found out there are only 45 days left until Christmas and only 16 (I think) until Thanksgiving. I have not planned my menu or tried out any possible new editions. I did make Tofurkey roast last night and it was yummy since I loaded up the casserole dish with veggies and basted like a mofo. I will have to get cracking if I want to do any tests in the next two weeks. I definitely want to bring a pumpkin tofu cheesecake for my co-workers to try and also because I don't think anyone else at home likes it as much as I do and I do not need to eat the whole thing, even though I can. I also need to finally make the pumpkin brownies which are also featured in Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar (it invaded my mailbox today)

Since I ate way too many halloween cupcakes I am trying to get back on the right track. I made black and white bean soup for the billionth time today since I had leftover veggies I didn't use in the roast and I have way too many cans of beans in the cupboard. It just finished cooking so I can start putting it into jars and packing some up for tomorrow. Yay! That and some extra walks might take care of some of the cupcakes, but now I have to watch out for vegan cookies. Maybe I should start with the breakfast ones?

Did I mention I went to Target today? We have been swamped at work for the past few months but I think it is finally going to slow down (so they tell us). In the meantime everyone has been stressed out, bogged down and riled up so I did what I would normally not do and jumped on the commercial Christmas bandwagon really early. I bought a 3' lighted tree, two tubes of $1 bulbs (one disco, one glittery) and a mini stocking for each of us plus glitter glue to write our names. Since we can't have candles around all that glorious paper I also bought a reed diffuser that is supposed to smell like cedar and pine. I would have preferred to get a real tree but since we might be gone for two weeks I feel bad for how that would turn out. I was so excited for all my purchases, the only thing I could not find was a package of reasonably priced hooks, but isn't that what repurposed paperclips are for?