A Sledding Party

Last Thursday night, we got 8-9 inches of snow (on top of about three, so we're up to about a foot here) and had a snow day on Friday. I spend most of Friday trying to get a few decorations up - it's been hard to get that done between moving, getting ready for holidays and working full time. The snow day was a gift indeed - perfect timing.

Friday night we decided to try to throw together a last-minute sledding party on Saturday afternoon. We called a few friends and ended up with two couples (only 4 adults, but they have 8 kids between them - 4 in each family!) coming over Saturday afternoon/evening. Being this was a last minute thing and the kids both had sports going on Saturday from 10-12 AND I had a bit of cleaning to do beforehand, I didn't have much time to prepare anything. I ran through the store Saturday morning and grabbed a bunch of munchies, a horseradish cheeseball (that turned out to be surprisingly good) and the fixings for some chili.

This last minute things goes completely against my nature - I like to plan so that I can have plenty of homemade goodies to serve. However, sometimes it's just fun to do things on the spur of the moment - if we wait until it's the perfect time or until we have things just so, we'd never end up having anyone over - especially when it comes to sledding - that's something you can't plan for ahead of time. I'm glad we did it, but it stilled pained me to have so many carb-type, storebought things.

So, I guess that means I have another recipe to share. It's a chili recipe adapted from Jane Brody's Good Food Book. I added meat to it this time, but it's also great without. I first started making it back when I wasn't eating meat. I was fixated on cleaning and getting ready for the guests, so I didn't get a photo.

Vegetarian Chili