This past weekend I had my first adventure in "catering". The RCIA director at church was hostessing a Southern Living at Home holiday show and she had just returned from Rome and was very ill. Seeing as she didn't feel well and doesn't like to cook/bake to begin with, she asked me to prepare the food for her little party. Since I'm always looking for an excuse to read cookbooks and make new stuff for other people to eat, I agreed.



Saturday was spent buying the ingredients and making all the tasty treats. I was happier than a pig in slop as I made everything we had decided on. Luckily Matt had his first Saturday off in a long time, so he was able to help out with Melanie. We were also able to go out to lunch with my family to celebrate Matt's birthday, which was a couple weeks ago.


The menu included Caramel Chess Tassies (mini tarts), Peppermint BonBon Cookies, Brown Sugar-Pecan Cupcakes, Chicken Artichoke Cheese Spread Gift Box, Christmas Gorp, Hot Cider Punch and a Cran-Ginger Granita.


Below are a couple pictures of the Chicken Artichoke Cheese Spread Gift Box. It's the only one I got pictures of since I dropped the camera while getting these pictures and it wouldn't work after that. Luckily Matt was able to take it apart and fix it, so I didn't have to buy my sister a new camera : )

Here are a few pictures of what I caught Melanie doing while I was baking. She's been pulling herself up to standing recently, and she had tried to use her toy basket to stand up, but instead succeeded in dumping her toys out all over the floor.

Notice the $20 bill behind Melanie in the second picture. One of her favorite things to do it get into the diaper bag and take things out, mostly my stuff (wallet, keys, cellphone). Recently she's gotten to where she can take things out of my wallet without opening it. We've found her playing with my credit cards more than once. Now when I leave the house I have to make sure I have money and credit cards/I.D. in their appropriate places. Such a little stinker!

And finally, the tooth! Matt and I have been trying in vain to get a picture of Melanie with her first tooth before the second one breaks through (you can see it pressing right below the surface of her gums, so time was running out) It seemed like every time we tried to get an open mouth picture she's be struck with a sudden case of bitter beer face and wouldn't budge no matter what antics we attempted. So a mere 100 pictures later, we finally have a decent picture of her first tooth. Thank goodness for digital cameras. If this was all film we would have given up long ago!