The Cop Showed Up to the Party!

I've already mentioned how Halloween is NOT one of my favorite holidays. However, I love an excuse to eat and drink with friends!

I am a Pampered Chef consultant, for the second time, actually. I was a consultant for about 6 1/2 years when I lived in Missouri. After my separation, I decided it would be a great opportunity for me to get back into and earn a little extra money. I have always loved the products and needed to restock my kitchen, so it was an easy decision!

At my cluster meeting last month, my Director made a cheese ball that was delicious! It's a Pampered Chef recipe, of course, and features the Three Onion Rub. The ingredient that I thought was ingenious, though, is the crushed Cheez-Its on the outside. I could eat this cheese ball all day long with celery! That makes it healthy, right? ;)

White Lightning Chicken Chili is somewhat of a Halloween tradition at my house. I started making this Pampered Chef recipe when my kids were little and it's one of my son's favorites. I'd never had any kind of white chili before this recipe and no other one compares to it now.

I also made a Pumpkin Ribbon Cake which is another PC recipe. The first time I made it was a show I did several years ago. It's always fun when you make a new recipe for the first time in front of a group of people and you're supposed to look like you know what you're doing! ;) I'd never liked pumpkin until I ate this. With a nice suggestion of pumpkin in the cake and the cream cheese ribbon throughout, this dessert convinced me that pumpkin can be pretty dang good! I made this for Nickey's birthday two years ago and she loved it, so it's a special occasion cake for us.

With my menu planned, I had invited a few friends over. I knew the weather wasn't going to be great (drizzly rain and cool) and we probably wouldn't have very many trick or treaters (even though we had candy out the wazoo, thanks to my candy lovin' girlfriend).

Amy and Evan were the first to arrive and Amy arranged the celery on the plate with the cheese ball for me. I think it looked great, what do you think?

My favorite part of the night, though, was when Abby and Justin arrived. I've teased Abby since the beginning of our journey about being a "cop". She surprised Cecelia, Becky, Nickey and me and showed up to a 6 AM run of ours and I commented that the "cop" had "showed up to the party."

So when I heard the knock on the door and turned to look, there was Abby, all decked out, in COP attire!! It was great!

Busted for non-healthy food options!

And, standing behind her was Justin, dressed as a cow! 

We had a great night and enjoyed the company of our "fitness" and "workout" friends. Of course now, they are simply "friends"... they don't need a designation.