"Diamonds on the Soles of her Shoes" - Paul Simon

Yesterday (July 22^nd) marked exactly ONE MONTH since Eric and I had been married.  And of course, the fabulous-ness that is our lives continues. 

One of the many things that make newly-married life so much more awesome is all the SWEET NEW SHIT.  Gone are the days of chipped target dishes, towels with weird mildew smells, and non-stick pans that would give you cancer.  Now that I am Mrs. Leimkuehler, I am now the type of classy lady that has fine china, high thread count bed linens, a block of fantastic cutlery, and a mahogany box of full of silverware!  

To inaugurate all the new shit, I decided to have a “CHECK OUT ALL MY SWEET NEW SHIT” party on Saturday night.  Because, what better way to celebrate such fabulous home wares than with fabulous friends and food?  In attendance were my friends from work, Sarah and Sara, and their significant others, Chris and Cody.  It was a good time.  We ate, drank, and played board games.

Sarah clearly enjoys drinking out of a fancy Crate and Barrel wine glass much more than a crappy one!

  

We started out with some appetizers, of course.  Sarah provided some meatballs from a local bakery, and I picked up some fresh cheese from Dean and Deluca.  Really the fresh cheese was an excuse to use my cheese knives and cheese board.  That’s right.  I am now so classy that I have a soft cheese knife and a hard cheese knife.  Compliments of my dear friend, Amanda Curtis.  The baguette was from the bakery down the street, Le Monde.  

Also, I am now the proud owner of a STAND MIXER.  I haven't actually used it yet, but it's so pretty...

After that we had a green salad, all with veggies from local farmers, purchased at City Market earlier that day.  Sara brought some Cesar dressing and croutons and I made balsamic vinaigrette in my new cruet.  Also, check out how fierce that salad bowl is!  My mom got that for me.   

It's like modern art!

The main dish was a Rachael Ray recipe from her 30 Minute Meals book.  It’s called “Lazy Chicken,” and it’s one of Eric’s favorites.  Basically the dish is an Italian casserole of potatoes, zucchini, onion, and chicken, in a tomato sauce, baked with cheese on top.  It really turned out well, because of all the fresh produce from City Market.  Sara also made roasted squash and zucchini as a side, and I made a three bean salad.   

Yumm...

Best of all… we got to eat it on the new china from Crate and Barrel with the fine silver!  Check out that spread!  

We used cloth napkins and two different forks!  It was like we were real adults or something!

I really do love having people over.  Especially when I get to fool them into thinking that I’m actually a good cook.  Maybe if you’re lucky enough I’ll have you over and trick you, too.