Food - Clothes - Fun

Have you heard of CAbi? Last night I hosted a show. CAbi is short for the Carol Anderson by Invitation clothing line. You invite your friends to your home, you feed them, the consultant shares the clothing line, then you start shopping with the consultant becoming your personal shopper. Girls tried on different pieces, getting friendly feedback and sizing suggestions.  It's loads of fun and their clothing is very high quality.  Hosting a party gives very nice discounts as well.  We had an age range from 19 to 62 and they all found something they loved.

 They're lookbook has the clothing on models and us "regular" types. Although, this lovely lady looks pretty fabulous as a "regular".

Our lovely hostess suggested a menu of simple food.  Well, sure.  I always aim for simple when I have company.  Why would I want to go and do something SIMPLE?  GEEZ! 

No, I have to make a lasagna recipe that I've never made before. It came recommended to me by my daughter who loves to cook and loves the Cooking Channel.  This is Pesto Lasagna from EVOO on the Cooking Channel.  It starts with a bechamel sauce which is a fancy name for a white sauce that takes forever to make.

It also calls for homemade pesto, which I wanted to try except for the fact that I have no basil plants and buying enough basil at the local grocery store would've broken the bank.  So, I bought a jar of very lovely, organic, pesto straight from Italy.  

I did venture down to our local cheese shop and bought a very fancy parmesan cheese called Grana Pandano also from Italy.

Sorry there is no "after" photo.  There were 25 people at my house by then and pictures were not  on my mind.  Let's just say, they wolfed it down and it was a big hit.  That's all that's in it, so it was good for the vegetarians in the group, although almost everyone ate it.

For dessert I made Barefood Contessa's Lemon Cake. I can't find this recipe online for you.  But, it is in her Parties cookbook. You can find it here. This was also time consuming, but SO WORTH IT.  She has you pour a lemon syrup on the cake while it's warm and that's before the lemon glaze. I did put fresh raspberries on it before serving, by alas, no pretty photo.  

 We did fun, clothes themed table decorations.

 Did somebody say, "keep it simple"?

Seriously, I didn't hear you.