A Family and Friend Filled Weekend

What could be better than a long weekend filled with family and friends? This weekend was Stephanie's bridal shower so Steph and David came in from Austin on Friday night. We celebrated David's birthday on Saturday even though his birthday isn't until February 5th since we wanted to save them another trip from Austin.

To join in the festivities of the weekend, my best friend of 40 years flew in from Connecticut with her daughter-in-law. Our two families have been connected by the bonds of being related and best of all, by choosing to be the best of friends. It's the best of both worlds; family and friendship.

David's food choices for the day were quite delicious. He is not an early riser and therefore is not a breakfast person. We had fresh bagels with an assortment of cream cheeses, and lox for those who wanted it which was my choice for breakfast.

Lunch was the Antipasto Salad which I have made a few times recently. It had all the usual suspects, romaine lettuce, cherry tomatoes, sliced roasted red peppers, sliced pepperoni, diced salami, cubed provolone cheese, olives, and pepperoncini peppers all dresed with the Best Salad Dressing in the World (really the name of the dressing). We also had a nice crusty baguette and some softer sliced French bread. Lunch was rounded out with Chocolate Crinkle cookies.

Dinner was Vodka Cream Pasta with a side of sauteed bay scallops for anyone wishing to add some to their pasta. I also oven roasted lots of fresh asparagus. You can't have pasta without bread, so I baked a couple of the Pillsbury French breads (no time to make my own). David's pick for dessert was chocolate mousse which I have not made in years. I used Alton Brown's recipe and it was superb. I will certainly be using that recipe again.

We ended the day relatively early with some Wii golf which David won, of course!