so many territories ready to reform

I really should not be updating - I have a million things to do.
Realizing that Sean and Ben were about to leave, and that we would be departing to the southeast for the holidays, on Tuesday I planned a spur-of-the-moment get together for Friday night - that's tonight! It's a potluck, chez moi, with a theme of winter foods. I invited 11 people. So far I know we have a vegetarian shepard's pie, a brussels sprouts dish, some other side dishes, one including potatoes I think, and I'm making bread pudding for dessert. Blake's bringing local eggnog and some rum to go with it, and Mimi and Gen are bringing red wine. We may or may not mull it. I turned a baguette into crostini slices yesterday, and whipped up a tapenade. Today I'll bring some herbed goat cheese to room temperature and mix in some dried cranberries, and voila - we'll have two crostini toppings.
I still have to vacuum the living room, sweep the kitchen floor, and scrub the toilet. It's not that I need to impress my friends with cleanliness, rather, I don't want to impress them with how dirty this place usually is. I have a reputation to maintain, see. As someone who's on top of things - i.e. the cleaning of my own place. You could say I'm pretty excited about this - it'll be the first intentional shindig at our place in Missouri. Back in Georgia I loved throwing or just planning get togethers. I love events, I love having great people gathered together with food and drink and music and lights. All that stuff just feeds me.
I'll try to remember to snap some photos tonight so I can show all you lovely people how the event turned out.


Last night I made biscotti. Lenox Almond Biscotti, a recipe by dear Dorie Greenspan, to be exact. I made it for Christmas presents - we'll give a bundle of biscotti alongside a pound of Starbucks Christmas Blend to a few couples - my mom and her husband, Scott's mom and her husband, Scott's sister and her husband, and my Aunt and Uncle, whose names we drew this year.
I'll post the recipe if anyone is interested, but otherwise, it's in Dorie's book "Baking" - the book which is quickly turning into my baking Bible. I have to admit - this is not the best biscotti I've ever made. One time I made a dark chocolate biscotti with slivered almonds and dried cherries and well, that was to die for. But almond is nice, too. Something different - this recipe had some cornmeal in it, which made the biscotti less sweet and more crumbly. I think I like it.

It's official - Bon Iver's "For Emma, Forever Ago" is the album of the winter. I can't get enough of it, and every time I'm not playing it, I'm hearing it played upstairs by the boys. It's good, it's so good.