pandora_parrot | My weekend so far...

Friday night: Had a small dinner and games party at my place with the usual crowd. Slightly last minute, but at least I didn't have to cook. Afterwards, we unpacked the last of our "communal" boxes and finally finished the stage called "unpacking."

I drank a little, and wasn't feeling entirely normal and wound up staying up until 6 AM.

4 hours later, my friend Rose calls asking me where I'm at... We had arranged to meet at Whole foods to buy food to cook for the housewarming party later that day.

Crap.

Rose's call woke up me, so I groggily indicated that she should drive to my place and pick me up while I got myself woken up.

Once my head had cleared a bit, I decided it was about time to figure out what I was going to make, food-wise, for the party. I quickly pulled up my recipe book and google and started contemplating and dreaming up ideas.

By the time Rose arrived from Whole Foods, I had managed to get a shopping list of ingredients put together, so we took off around 11.

By 1pm, we had all of the food and a bunch of extra things as well.

I came home and the roommates and I cleaned the apartment in preparation of guests. Around 3pm, I began cooking.

I wound up spending the majority of the next 5 hours cooking.

The foods that I had decided on were the following: Deviled eggs, my father's potato salad, a mushroom cream chicken bake, and a green bean casserole. I'd never made any of them before, and I didn't even have a recipe for the mushroom cream chicken bake. That was entirely off the cuff.

The deviled eggs turned out beautifully. The potato salad was excellent and perfect, but not a lot of people liked the style of potato salad I had made. Too chunky and stuff. The green bean casserole turned out "meh" in my opinion, but the chicken bake was amazing. I almost didn't get to try a bite, but when I did... WOW that was delicious.

The chicken bake was pretty simple:
1.5 c heavy cream
1 can cream of chicken soup
mushrooms
onions
veggie chicken

Fry chicken in olive oil and butter until slightly browned.
Sautee mushrooms and onions in pan until cooked.
Layer chicken in a small glass dish.
Mix cream and soup and pour over chicken.
Put the mushrooms and onions over the chicken as well
Feel free to add some non-sauteed mushrooms as well
Bake for 30 minutes on 375º

It turned out great!

Best thing of all? With the exception of the chicken bake, it was all gluten free. And even with the chicken bake, I had a low-gluten version ready to go for my gluten free guests.

Dessert was brownies, cakes, cupcakes, and more. They were completely gone by the time the night ended.

After dinner and dessert, we played some various games... Topless pirate Fluxx, 2 station Artemis, and drunk Curses.

I had a blast! The party was wonderful and everyone seemed to have a really good time. Our house was delightfully warmed, and I feel very loved in the midst of my friends.

I passed out around 1am in the middle of a sentence, my feet killing me, and my body completely exhausted from all of the cooking and preparation that day.

Amusingly, as I wake up this morning, I need to get myself together and get packed for a 2 day "camping" trip to a lake in clearlake with a friend and her family.