We invited 5 local families over for dinner yesterday.  Several months into the grilling season, we thought everyone would be sick of grill food, so Mrs. Fly did something a little different.  The three entrees were: a chicken pot pie, beef tenderloin with mushroom sauce, and chicken paprika.  The chicken pot pie was a huge hit.  Mrs. Fly had never made it before but it turned out really well.  She recently found a crust recipe she really liked in some pioneer woman cookbook.  I barely got a taste because I always wait for the guests to eat first.  I blinked and like 75% of the pie was gone.  Fortunately, she put another one in the freezer.  <3 Mrs. Fly.  The beef would have been awesome had I not overcooked it.  I went out and got a new meat thermometer and it led me wrong.  Yeah!  Yeah!  It's the thermometer's fault!  Anyway, the mushroom sauce had some really great flavor - perfect to cover up dry-ish meat.  The chicken paprika is usually awesome but it was surprisingly meh.  Why she would use 50% chciken breast is beyond me.  Oh yeah!  One of the families who came is pretty health-conscious, but they ended up having to leave early because their daughter wasn't feeling well.  Doh!

Footnote: We also had Mrs. Fly's jasmine rice, her tossed pasta in oil and a iceberg wedge salad with homemade buttermilk ranch dressing and fruit.  The women liked it tho.  No dead animal here - nothing worth talking about.  Move along...

It was somewhat embarrassing, but apparently a number of local people read my blog, so it was weird hearing other people call my wife, "Mrs. Fly."  It's sort of like that Seinfeld episode where George talks about his "worlds colliding."  Since I'm attempting to con the local people into thinking I'm a solid member of the community, I think maybe I need to cut back on the cruder references in my blog like clown punching.  Maybe...

Anyway, I think I'm used to my worlds having collided now so I'll just carry on.  :-)

Now, people seem to be angling to get a mention in the blog.  One guest offered to take off his pants to get a write-up.  I think I laughed on the outside, but mentally I was screaming in anguish.  So now that I've seen him a handful of times this year (with his pants on), I'm going to have to give him and his wife blog names - I dub thee Snap and Pop (from "Snap, Crackle and Pop") because Snap seems to always be bringing rice krispy treats to get-togethers.  "Crackle" didn't really seem to fit either of them, and he is retired so "Pop" sounded like a good name.

Anyway, I present to you the desserts (from bottom left going clockwise): assorted Italian bakery pastries, homemade whoopie pies and rice krispy treats (all from Snap and Pop - I'm eating one as we speak), fruit salad from the single mom (she went to a farmer's market to get the best fruit and added some mint - I'm telling you!  She's a keeper!), a yellow cake with chocolate frosting (from G's classmate's family), and a pail full of sand and ocean from my #1 fan.  The sand is crumbled white oreos and the blue stuff is some creamy concoction that melted in your mouth.

Well, now that I think about it, since she is my #1 fan, I'm going to have to give her and her husband a name - I dub thee the YellowJackets.  Because they are very colorful (entertaining) and I have a feeling if you piss them off there will be hell to pay - especially the queen.

Too much leftovers...  Help.