Well, the annual dinner with the parents occurred this evening. As I mentioned yesterday, we did an Italian theme this year. For appetizers, I made an antipasto tray consisting of prosciutto, soppressatta, genoa salami, capacola, marinated fresh mozzarella, provolone, giardiniera, green olives, marinated artichoke hearts, roasted red bell peppers and Parmesan crisps. Drinks were served, of course. The options were vodka and squirt or homemade wine (Carmenere/Malbec and Symphony).
For the main course, we had Italian stuffed chicken breasts, herbed orzo, roasted asparagus, and a herb/mesclun salad. Amaretto-chocolate pudding with raspberries and whipped cream was for dessert. I haven’t eaten in hours and I’m still stuffed (and I didn’t even have dessert. of course, I could’ve easily made a meal just from the antipasto).
A good time was had by all. It’s kind of nice to get together this way once a year without something else hanging over our heads (like birthdays, holidays, weddings, etc.) Next year, I’m thinking of pushing the dinner back to later in the year, say March. As I mentioned yesterday, the tradition started because of the Thanksgiving turkey that Brian’s employer gives out every year. But, we’ll probably be able to use that up from now on because we’ve put ourselves into the holiday hosting rotation. Anyway, we had the dinner in January because I didn’t want to hold onto that turkey forever. But January is so close to the holidays that it would be nicer, I think, to have it a little later in the year. We’ll see.