Leftovers ahoy

Well, readers, it has been a cooking extravaganza these past few days.

I arrived on Friday to a simple dinner--mac & cheese, leftovers and easy shrimp cocktail. Countless hours and several hundred dollars later, we have made everything else from scratch, in just about this order:

potato-kale soup
cornbread
pear salad
nuts and bolts (old-fashioned chex mix--my great-grandmother's recipe)
garlic cheese grits
monkey bread
egg scramble
ham
cornbread dressing
sweet potato casserole
port-wine cherry salad
green beans
pecan pie
potato-kale soup again (this was for a gluten-free friend which I ruined by accidentally adding wheat products; it's now in the freezer, for us)
fruit salad
fudge (my grandfather's recipe)
...and a variety of mixed drinks.

Tonight the cooking continues, as we gear up for tomorrow night's Holiday Open House. We're doing beer-cheese fondue, spinach dip, Christmas cookies, sweet and sour meatballs, baked bourbon brie with pecans, country ham biscuits and all your party fixin's. If you're in the area, holler--we'd love to see you.

Aunts and uncles arrive tomorrow, so we're also prepared (post-party) to whip up eggs benedict, Dutch pancakes, breakfast casserole and, if folks are lucky, my favorite orange Kuchen rolls.

Whew! That's enough to make a gal tired. Or hungry.

Perhaps our tastebuds mistake themselves for ambition?