Dinner Guests are FUN!

Having the exciting privilege to cook for my friends was keeping me stoked all week. All of the meals I make are usually for about 4 servings, so I've got plenty to share, so why not cook for others??

STORY TIME!!!
Austin & Brittany are great friends I've known for quite a while now. Brittany and I actually met in college when we were both in Big Red Singers at UNL, and became very close. She was dating this guy Austin on-and-off and while I never met him in college, I decided he was a douche and she should drop him ASAP. Luckily for her, she ignored my advice and married him instead.

Fast forward to about a year into my Enterprise career, I was out at a bar in Lincoln with my then boyfriend (and still coworker), Kevin. We turned around at the bar to see this couple sitting at a table. I said, "Hey, I was in showchoir with her!" And Kevin said, "Hey, I went to high school with him!" It's true: Kevin knew Austin from high school. We got to talking and found that Austin was looking for a new job. Kevin suggested Enterprise, and luckily for everyone, Austin did follow Kevin's advice. So now Austin and I are coworkers and close friends, and Brittany and I have been able to re-kindle our friendship that had faded in those few years between college and that fateful night at Cliff's Bar. Yay everyone!

In the last year or so the three of us have enjoyed many a night out at Kona (a popular sushi/thankfully-other-delicious-things-too cus-sushi-is-gross restaurant here in Omaha) and drinking wine together on their patio. So I was very excited to instead invite them over for a home-cooked meal instead of paying to go out.

However, upon learning that Austin hates everything good in life (read: all veggies and guacamole (see previous post)) I was a bit discouraged and a lot nervous. See, I had planned to make Spaghetti Squash Bake, which as you may have gathered, involves Spaghetti Squash. If you recall from one of my earlier entries, it tastes similar to lasagna and is mostly cheese, Italian turkey sausage, marinara and only a tiny bit of spaghetti squash, but I was still nervous.

ESPECIALLY AFTER THE GUACAMOLE DISASTER (seriously did you read my last post).

So what would I do for appetizers/side dishes?! Well, Brittany likes veggies, and I like veggies, and I wanted them to try the homemade "ranch" dip (see previous entries for simple as heck recipe) so I made a pretty platter of fresh veggies. But I also threw out a bowl of sweet potato chips which were enjoyed by all!!

I like that platter. That's a nice platter.

Conversation was great; it feels so wonderful to talk about what I'm doing with people who are honestly interested and can ask questions. There is still SO SO SO much I don't know (like WHY I do most of the things I'm doing... I mean I kinda get it... but I still have a lot of reading to do. So right now, the answer is: because my migraines have stopped, I'm not exhausted all the time, I feel good, and I've lost weight. Fair enough?) but not having all the answers isn't keeping me from being excited to continue down this path. And I'll share it with anyone who will listen or who will taste things I cook! Brittany is hoping to try a lot of things I've tried here - and thus I will continue to post recipes as I make them - if for no one else, at least I know one person is using them!! (Love you lovahhh!)

Having dinner guests was wonderful. I was critical of the main course because my first experience of this dish was made/overseen by Delilah who has made it a lot and has perfected the dish. Mine still tasted very good and was deliciously cheesy and yummy. However, when I do it next time I need to remember:
1. Use less squash! Too much at the bottom = too much water in the pan and just too damn much squash to eat!
2. Cook the squash longer than necessary. It shredded beautifully but it still was a little hard and didn't "mush" when the whole dish was baking the way I wanted it to.
3. Cook the whole dish a little longer. The cottage cheese didn't melt into the dish as fully as I would have liked.
But like I said, overall it tasted fine and Austin & Brittany were happy!!

Spaghetti Squash: The vegetable that thinks it's pasta. 

We finished with a clean chocolate chip cookie for dessert!! Recipe found on Delilah's blog, www.mycleanrecipes.blogspot.com. Check her out!

Anyway, thanks to my wonderful friends for being my guinea pigs and trying my food, and props to Austin for trying the main dish without knowing what the mystery ingredient was. I told him the entree was "basically lasagna." Close enough!