Christmas parties

The holiday party season has begun. Evites are piling up like Christmas cards from relatives, so now, strategic party attending is in effect. I've got 2 to juggle next week and I'm looking forward to both. We had a gathering, which turned into a party, last night. It went great, especially considering I didn't get out of bed till 1:30pm. I've never prepped and cooked to the extent we did for this party. Thank God that Bruno and I had Jen to guide us through. We made vegan hors duvres for the most part with fake sausage balls, something I can't spell or pronounce, but looked like empenadas (is that spelled right?) stuffed with spinach, onions, and fake cheese, fried pickles with a peach glaze dipping sauce, vegan Mexican dip, stuffed mushrooms, and a lot of other bite sized morsels. I had many cups of our friend Margaret's hot spiced wine and brandy concoction- called grog I think-that knocked my socks off, literally. One highlight that made me laugh was actually while making the stuffing for the mushrooms. To make the stuffed mushrooms, I pulled the stem out and all 3 of us mixed together browned "Gimme Lean" fake sausage, onions, Worcestershire sauce (the cheap kind w/ no anchovies), garlic powder, spinach, and whatever else we wanted to spice it up with, then stuffed the mushrooms with it and baked them in oil and margarine. Well, we had all these mushroom stems that Bruno didn't want to waste, even if it went into the compost pile, so we tried to figure out what to make with them. When we suggested using them in the stuffed mushroom mixture, Bruno said it felt wrong. He thought stuffing a vegetable with its own guts was too cannibalistic. Now, I don't know why but that strange thought expressed aloud made me laugh way too hard. Have you ever stuffed a vegetable with its self? I thought I have before but I can't recall. Wen we get our pics back, I'll throw a few on for fun. Oh well, the dogs are chasing the cat around the house again. Poor Chloe, let me go rescue her. Later.