Know How Many Easy-To-Take Appetizers Involve Cream Cheese?

Most of them.

This month almost everything we've been invited to attend involves bringing food of some sort.  When taking food to a party, it's easiest to have things that can be served cool or at room temperature.  Crackers, cheese balls, dips--they all work really well and are, of course, illegal.  Even normal cheese in a block is a bit daunting--we have had several inadvertent "cheats" because initially I forgot that in reality, there's no way for cheese to be orange, and then I was foolish enough to believe that smoked gouda might be slightly off-white because of the smoking.  Nope--all food coloring.  And I have discovered at least one of the reasons that most of our dairy products contain some sort of stabilizer--yogurt separates.  Make a dip out of yogurt and IF you can cover up the tangy yogurt taste that, by now, we're frankly a little sick of, it might STILL separate by the time you get it to where you're going. 

So, this year every party is getting zucchini bread.  Every single party.  It's good zucchini bread, but since several parties involve the same people I've been waiting for a little muttering or rumbling about the zucchini overdose.  This is a big thing for me--usually I am very careful about taking healthy appetizers or food to parties, but this year all bets are off.  I sort of made a rule that I had to take legal food to parties.  I guess we could have said that I could take whatever and then not eat it, but that seemed like cheating.  And to be honest it's a bit of a relief to know that at least one thing isn't likely to cause stomach issues for the next few days.  One of our rules has been that we could--within reason--eat what was served at other people's homes, but usually these episodes have been evenly spaced out.  This month there are SO many parties, and it's been sort of an indigestion-marathon so far--and fasting seems likely for the next round of parties.  Interestingly, I caught a cold this week...which in all fairness could be attributed to the fact that it's been below freezing all week & not anticipated to get warmer in the immediate future, or to the rampant socializing, but it is hard not to wonder if it doesn't have something to do with the poorer diet this month as well....

That's it--maybe it's time to finally cook one of the 35-pound squashes and dig in.......