Family Dinner Series Week Eleven

For Family Dinner Series Week Eleven, Uncle Bud and Gilbert Hoss invited one of their favorite coworkers, Fitzy, over for a feast. Though we all know Fitzy is a great guy, he still surprised us when he arrived with a ham steak as a hostess gift, the most important detail being that the ham steak came from one of his own pigs.


Kids, pay attention. THIS is how you get invited back to a second Family Dinner.

Uncle Bud had decided that he wanted to cook for the evening, a chicken recipe he learned from our older sister while paying a visit to her house. The rest of us watched in wonder as Bud expertly laid the chicken in the dish and coated it in catalina dressing and cranberry sauce.

But then things derailed when we realized no one had told Bud he was supposed to preheat the oven. How was he supposed to know? He had never used the oven before! Just the grill.

Luckily Family Dinner is anything but strict with a schedule.

As the oven preheated, and the chicken baked, I threw together some Stove Top stuffing and a side salad. Then we all snacked on Gilbert Hoss' most excellent focaccia with garlicky olive oil dip, while Fitzy regaled us with stories of raising livestock and shoeing horses.

How appropriate that we were already in a barn!

After dinner, we finally got around to doing our stocking gift exchange, which included puzzles, a fishing knife, and a bottle of pinot grigio. The best gift, however, was the one the boys bought for Kathy Lee, our feline in residence.


She played with it for the rest of the night.

Conclusion? Invite more people who raise livestock to acquire more meat.