Pasta Parties

This weekend on top of the Veterans Day 10K I spent a bunch of time with friends eating and enjoying the company of good people. After spending the night home on Friday night preparing things I hosted a pasta party supposedly for the people running the race the next day thought only three of the 11 people there ran the next day. I made a sugered pecan topped mandarin salad with a red wine vinegret dressing, homemade fettuccini alfredo and spaghetti with a homemade meat sauce and some apple oatmeal cookies for dessert.

I haven't cooked for people in a long time and it was a lot of fun doing it even though I get a bit flustered sometimes with it. All of the food turned out extremely well and everyone seemed to really enjoy it. My alfredo sauce seemed to be extra popular (maybe bacause those folks were vegetarians) but what was really great about it was that while it was a good creamy sauce it still only had a few grams of fat per serving. I've started my marathon training diet so I'm trying to pay close attention to what I'm eating for that. Some people might find that excessive I find that going for the entire training program including diet helps me stay focused and keeps me
motivated.

Sunday after the run (and the half hour thawing shower) my friend Mandie who also ran had a few of us over for Brunch for which she got her hands on a Belgain waffle maker... Boy am I jealous. Then Sunday night another friend Krista had a prethanksgiving day feast at her place with a packed house and tons of great food. Love that!

Oh yeah, and as inspired by my good friend Swan and her great photographing abilities I've been keeping my eyes open for interesting and cool shots which I will share from time to time. While I am no photographer by any means I will do what I can. Below is a shot I took walking home from Mandie's in the rain in Dupont circle. Unfortunately the light was not great and so the picture was not quite as nice as these from the day before but oh well.