A Special Dinner

Last night Chris and I had a special dinner.  

It was special for a number of reasons -- our first time entertaining friends in our new house, our first time entertaining friends as a married couple, the first time I had made a multi-component sit-down dinner for people outside of my family.  All of these things meant we CLEANED our house (so I thought that would be a good time to snap some pictures)...

It was a great dinner completely food-network inspired.  Mango BBQ Pulled Pork by Aarti Sequeira, Creamy mashed potatoes by Pioneer Woman, Confetti Corn by the Barefoot Contessa and steamed broccoli (no food network credit here.  The dinner was topped off by Peanut-butter fudge by Bakerella (to the best of knowledge, no Food network affiliation).

I spent the day cooking and cooking and cooking and baking... and watching football...

I LOVE this Le Creuset Dutch Oven

Don't you love our new spice rack organizer?  This was my
hubby's idea.

There were no disasters and much of the food was consumed and many compliments were received -- most regarding the mashed potatoes.  This was a nice small-scale test run for me as Chris and I will be hosting both of our families for Thanksgiving this year and I've got to become more comfortable making company-appropriate food.

Before

After

Since we were watching the University of Michigan football game and the Detroit Tigers baseball game, I served the fudge in our new U-M dog bowl (never been used, nice and clean).

How was your dinner?