It looks like we may finally get a break from the rain tomorrow. Cooler than norma for July though. I went grocery shopping this evening & was planning to fix spinach tortellini. DH is working late out of town & I was running late by the time I was done, so I decided on something simpler. Whole Foods was having one of their holiday "bundle deals", so we're having bbq sandwiches with coleslaw. Will have a chocolate chip cookie for dessert as that was part of the bundle. We almost never keep any kind of sweets around the house, so it's a treat for us.

We woke up to a light rain this morning. It's got a nip in the air and got up to 62 degrees. We liked it! :0) Very hearty and I put hot sauce over mine. 3 lbs potatoes, diced(small) & boiled, skins on 1 lb bulk breakfast sausage 1 cup diced raw onion 6 eggs 1 Tbl flour 1/2 lb grated cheddar cheese Seasoning salt & pepper to taste Fry the sausage, drain any grease off & add onions in a skillet until fully cooked. Press the potatoes into a 13 x 9 casserole dish. Spoon the sausage mixture over the potatoes. In a large mixing bowl whisk eggs, flour, salt & pepper. Pour over casserole, distribute the grated cheese over the top. Cover with foil. Bake 1 hour @ 400 degrees. This post was edited by nicole__ on Wed, Sep 10, 14 at 21:10

I'm home alone tonight. Robert is one of the Directors that needs to be on duty at the University when it's closed for a weather emergency. So he left early this afternoon before the snow started and I'll see him when the campus opens. It's kind of nice to have the house to myself at night....it so rarely happens. (Not that I would want it any other way!!) I've cranked up some music and am getting ready to pull together a gingery stir fry with fried rice. I bought some short grain brown rice the other day that I'm excited to try. I've got some boneless, skinless chicken thighs to use for the stir fry. Everybody's dinner sounds absolutely marvelous, wow! Jasdip, I have a deeelicious turkey casserole recipe, if you want it. It's the one and only recipe I have that calls for canned mushroom soup, if that doesn't turn you off. Let me know and I'll write in the recipe.

While it is certainly true that in many communities, only the bridal party and close family are included in the rehearsal dinner, in others, it is customary to invite people who have traveled from out of town. It is in mine. We call the dinner the night before a "rehearsal dinner," but it rarely has anything to do with a rehearsal. It's usually a much more casual event with everyone who traveled from out of town and usually local family (because many of the out of town guests are family, too)and also very close local friends who helped in major ways (hosting a shower, for example). Because the tone is so different, even if it's almost the whole group, it doesn't feel like two weddings. As you point out, in a destination wedding, everyone has traveled. And you are talking about international travel. So unless you mean something like 25 miles across the Canadian or Mexican border, your guests are going to be spending some major money and time to attend this wedding. I have to admit that if I were one of your guests and you felt I was inner-circle enough to ask me to go to that much trouble and expense from my end but not inner-circle enough to include me for a meal the night before, I'd find it really strange and frankly rather inhospitable. Furthermore, you say that "of the 70 or some coming to the wedding, many of which includes the bridal party and relatives, I'd hate to leave out people and have them feel excluded." So how many are you figuring on not including? If you have 70 total and include 45 and exclude 35 the night before, you really have an A and B list situation, in my opinion. I would include everyone even if it were 10 and 60, not 45 and 35, but definitely in the latter situation. I mean, you say you don't want them to "feel excluded" -- well, they ARE being excluded. I don't think you can have it both ways, and you certainly can't prevent them from feeling what they will feel. Now, your group may find the concept of anyone other than the bridal party being at the rehearsal dinner so foreign that they would be surprised if they were included (although the fact that you are worrying about this makes me suspect that that isn't so certainly the case). Plus, as you note, some may not even be there yet even if they do know they are invited to the rehearsal dinner, too. As to the liquor, I wouldn't do anything like tickets or a cash bar. Provide only what you can afford and want to provide, but whatever you provide, host with an open hand. Bottles of wine or pitchers of beer or lemonade on the tables is perfectly fine -- you absolutely don't have to have a full bar.