weekend of gluttony

One of Thomas's birthday gifts this year was a cassoulet kit. Cassoulet is a French dish, basically a stew of beans and meat and sausage, and it is one of Thomas's most favorite foods. His dad ordered him a kit that came with basically everything required to make it: duck confit legs, sausages, pork belly, 3 pounds of beans, rendered duck fat, etc... The kit makes an enormous amount of food, so we decided to invite friends over to share it, and eventually it evolved into a French-themed dinner party. In addition to the cassoulet, we made a salad and had a cheeseboard, and my friend Mandy brought homemade French baguettes. Sadly there are no pictures of dessert, but Mandy also brought a French chocolate tart, I made a berry clafoutis, our friends Jordan & Nicole brought macarons, and we also put out Le Petit Écolier cookies. It was an amazing meal, and by the end, we were all so full that none of us could move. 

Thomas made sure to document the entire cooking process. It was an all-day affair.

We may have dressed up a little.

 

Jordan and Nicole, Brittany, moi, Mandy and Klayton. not pictured: Thomas (oops, we should have gotten a picture with him!), and five little ones busy wreaking havoc 

too full even to sit up!

Perhaps foolishly, we scheduled this party for the night before the Super Bowl. Mandy and Klayton had a big Super Bowl party the next day with even more absurd amounts of food. Fortunately they made it a pajama party, so at least our waists were comfortable. :) We had a blast (kind of) watching (parts of) the game, playing games, and eating ourselves silly once again.

 

The tower fell a split second later.

 

 
 
 

Ending the night with a little karaoke.

It was such a fun weekend, but we definitely overdid a little bit!! Monday night, as we were eating leftovers for dinner, Jamie looked at his plate of cassoulet for a minute and quietly asked for more salad. That is completely unlike him, but I think he (and the rest of us) knew our poor tummies had been a bit overwhelmed! We learned our lesson: Our next cassoulet party will not be the same weekend as the Super Bowl or any other day of gluttony!