Fall Dinner Party!

Amber has been home this week and it has been wonderful being able to see her and spend some time together!

We took in a movie - RED - which was WONDERFUL!! My favorite quote- "I KILL people, dear!"

Made a trip to her Dallas Brides office to pick up her business cards and handle a few things.

Amber then decided to throw together a little dinner party!

And I mean literally THROW IT TOGETHER! She is AMAZING!

First she researched some healthy recipes using some great fall vegetables!

She selected a fish dish with acorn squash and tomatoes along with a really great sweet potato recipe and then green beans with pine nuts. ALL heart healthy eating!

She scrounged up what ingredients I had on hand and then made a wild dash to the store for all the rest!

She set the table for fall by creating a red runner from a paper cloth. I then layered a length of brown wrapping paper on top of that. The red paper place mats were set on top of the fall tea towels I had hanging on my oven handle. She used my heavy Pfaltzgraff dinner plates to hold the good eats that were to be served! While at the store Amber picked up a couple of gourds to set out between the candles she had collected from around the house! And WALLA!!! A fall dinner party just waiting to happen!

It was a combined effort in the kitchen with the dinner guests bringing some of the key ingredients.....as in LeeAnne discovering exactly what and where Pine Nuts were located in her local grocery store!

(She is the one in the middle of photo above)

Medley did a lot of the veggie prep work and they all joined forces for the actual cooking!

It was great fun for me to sit out in the den with my cozy fireplace and a glass of wine just listening to the girls in the kitchen.  These girls have been at home in my house for going on 15 years I guess! I never fail to enjoy a visit from the 'Synchro Girls'.....all members of The Pirouettes of Texas Synchronized Swimming Team since they were young!

And where was Louis Dean and Mike during all of this you may ask?

Louis Dean had taken himself off to a music jam session.....too many women in the house for HIM!

And Mike had just finished up his Professional Engineer's test and was making it through the Houston traffic to the airport where he landed at DFW shortly AFTER the meal.

But no worries! There were plenty of leftovers and we ended our evening with the four of us...

a young couple and an older one......

all out in the gazebo chatting together as Amber served Mike a plate of her fall dinner!

It was a LOVELY fall evening!