On a compulsive let's-do-this we invited four friends for dinner last night not realizing it was Halloween when we made the call to summon everyone for dinner after Saturday night Byzantine liturgy. We've been living in this house we sort of inherited from my mother-in-law since April, renting to own and hoping to land a mortgage this spring... and hadn't had it blessed yet. Two of the friends we invited are priests, so of course they were thrilled with the idea of blessing our house on All Hallow's Eve. I hadn't ever had a house "officially" blessed, just always considered Our Lord to be everywhere. It was a wonderful experience, and I'm so glad we did this.

Anyhow, the menu was somewhat friendly... ok not all the way, but I stayed the course with only one close call. Appetizer was easy, Curried Pumpkin Soup. Main course was eye of round roast... stab it all over fat side up and slide slivers of garlic inside, rub all over with olive oil and herbes de Provence... oven at 500 preheated, roast fat side up on a rack in roasting pan at 500 for 7 mins/lb, then turn off oven and leave in there 20 mins/lb and don't open the door no matter what. Mercy. Steamed asperagus with hollandaise. Got this great recipe for hollandaise: Soften a stick of butter in the microwave for 30 seconds. Beat 6 egg yolks, 2 T. lemon juice, and 1/2 t. dry mustard. Beat the egg mixture into the softened butter. MIcrowave one minute, beating every 15 seconds and stop nuking it the moment the sauce thickens or it'll curdle. That's the stuff.

I ran into a little trouble but was ok with the non-friendly items my husband wanted: brownies and mashed potatoes. Tried to talk him into rice since I just throw that in the rice cooker and go but noooo he wanted MY mashed taters. So the brownies were ok even though I handled the batter and utensils like I was handling radioactive materials ROFL Then the potatoes spilled over a little in the stand mixer bowl and just out of habit there went the finger to catch the spill and BAM right in the mouth. I about choked. Ran to the sink and spit, spit, rinse, spit, rinse, spit... looking back on it it was actually kinda funny but really pissed me off at the time. LOL

Hors d'oeuvres were broccoli florets with creamy caesar dip, kalamata olives. Also had bread and dipping oil. Once the guests arrived I was a-ok and just didn't think too much about the bread or potatoes or brownies since I had so many other choices. Worked great! Oh and as the kids showed up to trick or treat our friend Ted passed out the candy which suited me peachy.

So I felt lighter this morning and weighed (yeah I know it's too soon) but found I was 250, just a hair away from my first mini-goal. *sigh* Now I don't know the last time I had a dinner party and woke up lighter the next day, but maybe I need to just broaden my expectations.

Today I have stacks of workbooks to grade, some copies to make, and have a goal of getting to the gym for the first time. Will post later.