Good Friends, Good Food

Hi all!  This post will be quick, because we need to hit the sack so that we’ll be well-rested for our big race tomorrow (oh, and Thanksgiving too)! 

Tonight, we went over to our friends Ellen and Dillon’s house for dinner.  Ellen and Dillon got engaged at the end of the summer, and this was the first time I’ve seen her since the big proposal.  I wish I had taken a picture of her ring for the blog– it was GORGEOUS!! 

Another couple, James and Ellie, came over for dinner as well.  Both Ellie and Ellen are good friends of mine from high school, and Ellie was my college roommate for ALL four years of college in Charleston, SC.  After we finished college, she moved out to Jackson Hole and I headed to grad school in Indiana.  It was pretty hard not having her around– I was so used to seeing her all the time!  I still miss her every day!  She’s living back in Shreveport now, so I get to see her more often because I’m home pretty regularly…but it’s still not the same!

Anyway– enough of that sob story!  Dinner was awesome!

Ellen had made pulled pork bbq in her slow cooker, but, knowing that I recently went veg, she also picked up some vegetarian baked beans for me that were delicious.  We also had potato salad (from the Hickory Stick, a Shreveport BBQ institution), bread, and a green salad that I threw together (mixed greens, tomatoes, pomegranates, pecans, mushrooms, blue cheese, and croutons…random, but good!).  All in all, it was a delicious meal, and while the pork smelled good, I didn’t feel deprived one bit!

Here’s my plate:

And then, Ellen brought out dessert.

Oh.  My.

Pumpkin bread pudding + Caramel pecan sauce = All that is good in the world

She said the recipe was from Southern Living.  Seriously– to die for.  And it actually tasted very pumpkin-y.  Sometimes I feel like when you make a pumpkin dessert, the true pumpkin flavor gets lost in all the sugar and sweetness.  But not this bread pudding– it had a delicious, authentically pumpkin flavor running throughout.  Truly delicious.

Here’s my plate (I seriously probably could have/would have eaten 10 times this amount, had I not been in the presence of others.  Thank goodness for small amounts of dignity and restraint):

It might not take a pretty picture, but DAMN it tasted good!

Hope that your Thanksgiving Eve has gone well.  Maybe the Thanksgiving elves will put together my dressing tonight as I’m fast asleep in my bed! 

Good night, friends!