whew, busy weekend, or in which I get very link happy

Larry had a birthday this weekend, so I cooked a lot; we had my mom and Rochelle over for dinner Friday night. I made meatloaf and mashed rutabagas and parsnips with a lovely salad. What? That's what he asked me to make, I never would have come up with that menu myself. I'm not a big fan of meatloaf but everyone swore it was the best they'd ever had. The rutabaga and parsnip mash was delicious with butter mixed in.

Saturday night the Wannabe Hippie clan came over; Larry's prescribed menu consisted of home made gnocchi and garlic bread; I made a mushroom and kale (out of the garden) sauce that didn't go over very well but wasn't bad, I thought. I used Julee Rosso's recipe from Great Good Food as a starting point for the gnocchi and found this picture of Nina's foot tucked into that page. So sweet.

On Sunday some friends who live in the LA area drove down and brought some other friends who were visiting from Chicago. It was wonderful to see them all again. We had bagels with smoked salmon and cream cheese, a casserole that I made out of the leftover mashed rutabaga and parsnip, chocolate bread pudding, caprese salad out of mozzarella I had made with mom on Thursday from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, and blood oranges and tangerines that I got at the farmer's market in Leucadia.

Nina and Max are particularly good old friends, remember the last time they got together?

Here's Christian and Larry chilling on the couch with Nina.

And Cynthia and Susan. I had just finished felting the hat that Susan is wearing and it struck me that it is perfect for her so it went home with her (she needs it more than I do, living in Chicago and all).

Here's what it looked like before felting (modeled by Nina).

It was an awesome weekend but now I need a vacation!