Goodbye summer!

We've been all over the place the last few days! We went to check out another caterer, we went to the mansion venue (the one we won the gift certificate for), we went to a concert, we went to a party... phew!

The caterer we checked out this time gave more direct answers than the others so far, and actually asked us a lot of questions to get a better feel for what we're looking for. The best part was that although they don't do a "tasting" in the traditional sense, they do make enough food that we have a chance to sample some of their stuff. One of the entrees that we thought sounded interesting was a dish they called pumpkin chicken. I guess they must've been making some for another event, because as we were talking she mentioned that she was going to be making that dish the next day. We made arrangements and actually just showed up the next afternoon and picked up some pumpkin chicken to go! We bought it just like you would if you were going to get take-out, but it was already made and waiting just for us. The dish itself wasn't at all what I had imagined, but Dylan and I both agreed that it was very tasty and if we had been served that meal at a restaurant, we'd both consider ordering it again. We're not sure that dish is what we'd want to serve at the wedding, but it did let us know that this caterer does a nice job with their spices and combining flavors. The other nice thing is that these people make a whole lot of desserts. They can even do our wedding cake if we want. They actually supply a lot of the fancy cakes that they sell at Huckleberry's (one of the finer natural food shops around Spokane), so Dylan and I made a trip over there and treated ourselves each to a slice of different kinds of cake. For research purposes, naturally.

As I said, we went and took a tour of the mansion venue I'd mentioned. I'm glad we went, because it actually ended up making us both feel more confident in our choice of the Jacklin Arts and Cultural Center. The mansion has potential, but it seemed like it was gradually being renovated and not quite ready to host a lot of weddings just yet. Maybe we'll still figure out a way to put the gift certificate to good use, but it probably won't be for our wedding.

Friday night we went to an outdoor concert -- Bushwalla, G. Love And Special Sauce, and Jason Mraz. It was a really good show and we had a lot of fun. The security people were a little self important and rude, but the upbeat attitude of the performers made up for it. I always loving going to a show where the musicians really seem like they're enjoying what they're doing, and Jason Mraz in particular sounded great. I obviously already like his music, but I think he may be even better live.

Yesterday we went to a vegan potluck at our friends' house. I got to try my hand at some vegan recipes, so that was an adventure. We were supposed to bring snacks instead of heavy entrees, so I made a white bean dip that is similar to a really creamy hummus, but with more lemon juice and a little fresh basil. I also wanted to try to make a vegan dessert, which was more of a challenge. I made a 100% vegan chocolate cake with a really rich chocolate orange glaze (I want to call it ganache, but obviously it didn't have cream in it.) It was surprisingly good, although the boys at the party were lamenting the lack of ice cream to go along with it. We had fun just hanging out with friends, playing some games and laughing loud enough that I'm surprised the neighbors didn't come over to see what we were up to. This may have been the last warm weekend of an indian summer, so we tried to make the most of it!

Today we're thinking about taking a day trip down to visit Dylan's sister Shannon. If we do that, we're going to be on the road for a few hours.

A lot of you may have read this and thought, "Uh... Thanks for the update on your weekend, but where the heck is the wedding stuff?" and my answer to that is that I'm hoping to have a board up tomorrow. It'll probably be a little different than some of my previous ones, but we'll see. I'm experimenting.

In the meantime, if you have a color combo that you're just dying to see, email me and tell me about it and maybe I'll feature it in the coming weeks!