Sara's Successful Dinner Party

Yummy, yummy, yummy! I just finished cleaning all the dishes after my 'home-baked' dinner for my friends at Katie Baker's house. I started last night with some pre-cooking steps like shopping for all my ingredints and pre-mixing the dry stuff.
This morning I started with a great (and very hard) swim practice...thanks to Cliff for making me think I was a swimmer again, even if it was only for 1 hour and 15 minutes:). After I got out of the water...I gathered up all the other triathletes at the OTC (now there are officialy 3 of us...instead of just me) and we headed up to Manitou Springs for a fantastic brunch at the Adam's Mountain Cafe. It was my first visit to Adam's...and I can guarantee that I will be returning many times in the future! I enjoyed a few relaxing minutes with my good friends (Cliff, Haven, Mike, and Dave) over good food (Italian Omelet).
Mid-day I headed out into the beautiful Colorado Springs weather for a bike ride. The temperature actually reached 82 degrees when I rode by the flashing sign that shows the temperature. There was not a single cloud in the sky and I enjoyed a few loops around the Garden of the Gods.
When I got back to the OTC, I hit a quick strength session in the gym and my training was finished for the day. I gathered up all my cookbooks and headed over to Katie Baker's house to start preparing dinner.
I started with a Butternut Squash and Tomato Bisque. It was the first time that I've attemted tackling a raw squash and turning it into something eat-able...after a lot of trial and error, I managed to get enough of the insides scraped out for the bisque. Next, I tackled the cinnamon/sugar/baguette crutons for the top of the bisque. They were pretty easy and all I had to do was lightly cook them in the oven right before dinner time.
With the dry ingrediants I set out last night, I mixed together a Cranberry Bread and got that started in the oven for dessert. The easiest and quicked item that I served for dinner was a Spinach salad with craisins, banana slices, pecans, and crumbled feta cheese.
Jessica and Luca showed up right on time. Mike and Dave weren't far behind. We chilled out and chatted while eating...I got quite a few complememts on my cooking creations and then I even got some help with the dishes!
Now I'm chilling on Katie's computer and watching Scrubs on TV. I'm actually wondering where Victor (Katie's cat) is tonight...he should be back in the apartment so that I can lock up and leave to sleep in my own bed:)
Other than that...life here in COS is good...we are waiting for the next big snow so that more ski runs will open up and make the 2.5 hour drive to the mountains worth the while.