Hosting is fun...

Anyone who knows me knows how much I adore my house and, while on the smaller side, it has a great layout for hosting company.

Today we did our annual get together with my paternal grandma--now my only grandma--and my dad's wife. So it was me, my mom, my brother, my sister-in-law, nephew Alexander, grandma, and dad's wife. Yes, it is a little surreal having my mom and my dad's wife together, but we're all adults and we have made it work over the years.

We did our gift exchange and oohed and aahed over every little thing that Alexander did, as usual. It sure feels good as an auntie to have him crawl over to me and want to be held or to crawl all the way into the kitchen looking for me when I'm getting things to put on the table. And he looked so adorable today. I was too busy to take pictures, but my mom did, as usual.

We got to use our pretty Lenox Christmas dishes. I made this great and easy chicken casserole and my mom made a peach pie--both out of my "Busy Woman's Cookbook." This cookbook is so great, so simple, and it has never let me down in all the years I've had it. My mom's pie was excellent. She said it was so easy it was almost embarrassing! Jonathan made the Caeser salad. It was an excellent meal and we had a lot of fun. All topped off with some Martinelli's Sparkling Cider.

After everyone left my mom and cleared the table and did the dishes. Then we called some of our friends from our first school where we both taught and set up a little luncheon for this Friday. Again, at my house. I think we're going to do a repeat of today's meal.

And since I don't have pictures to share, I'll share the recipes. You can order that cookbook at busywomanscookbook.com: (it is the last one on the list, with only 3-4 ingredients per meal)

EVERYONE'S FAVORITE CHICKEN CASSEROLE

• 2 1/2 or 3 pounds of chicken, cooked
• 2 (6 oz) boxes stuffing mix (I use Stovetop)
• 1 1/2 (10 3/4 oz) cans cream of chicken soup
• 1 1/2 cups carton plain yogurt

Boil chicken until done. Pull apart from the bone and set aside. Fix stuffing according to directions on box. Spread half of stuffing in 9x13 baking dish. Cover stuffing with chicken. Mix soup and yogurt together and spread it evenly over the chicken. Sprinkle the rest of the stuffing on top. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Makes 6 servings.

EASY PEACH PIE

• 1 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1 (29 oz) can sliced peaches, drained (my mom used peaches from a jar--don't forget to drain them)
• 2 (9 in) pie crusts, unbaked

Put 1/2 cup sugar and 1 tablespoon flour in bottom of 9-inch unbaked pie crust. Place peaches on top of flour and sugar. Put the other 1/2 cup of sugar and 1 tablespoon of flour on top of the peaches; use the other pie crust for the top crust. Seal, cut slits on top. Bake at 425 degrees for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

I would love to know if anyone actually tries these. Trust me, you won't regret it! They are both fabulous and super duper easy. The casserole is a little time-consuming, but still very simple. The above pictures were taken off the web, but they are pretty darn close to how everything is suppose to look...