By now we all know that I have a blatant obsession with the cultural juggernaut called “Jersey Shore”. I find the show entertaining for oh so many reasons but some of my favorite scenes on Jersey Shore are when the cast sits down to “Sunday Dinner”

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They all come together and dine on some of their favorite foods: penne alla vodka, baked ziti, sausages with pepper and onion, cold cuts and Ron Ron juice. Not to mention, they all have a hilariously good time while doing it.

Monica and her husband Dan were gracious enough to host a Sunday Dinner for me, Amanda & Andy, and Kaitlin last night.

But instead of Ron Ron juice we had red vino (lots and lots of delicious red vino)!

Instead of cold cuts we had veggies with red pepper hummus…

AND salami with amazing sweet whiskey cheese, pesto gouda, and crackers. All were provided by Amanda and Andy (clearly they know my affinity for salty meats) 😉

Instead of ziti and penne alla vodka we had two kinds of Brussels sprouts (!) because Kaitlin and I share a brain are clearly obsessed with Brussels sprouts. Mine are a Brussels Sprouts Gratin from Cooking Light (recipe to be posted shortly) and Kaitlin made Asian sesame glazed sprouts. You can truly never have too many sprouts. Mine on top and Kaitlin’s on the bottom.

And instead of sausage with peppers and onions we had Cranberry Barbecue Beef Stew with Socca which Monica made. It was so tasty and included many of my perennial obsessions like butternut squash and sweet potato. This was especially nice because butternut squash is slowly disappearing from the farmers market. This dish was  a tasty send off for an old friend (please don’t judge for my calling bnut squash a friend. You know I’m right). Overall, this was a fantastic dinner filled with some of my favorites.

The one thing that was the same as Jersey Shore Sunday dinners: I pretty much laughed my ass off the entire time. Not only are these people hilarious, they understand working out, racing, foodie obsessions, and blogging. Matches made in heaven. My core muscles are sore today from all the laughing that I did throughout the night.

Then we decided to take a picture. It was an… interesting process which we will call “how many bloggers does it take to take a group photo”…

Take 1:

Take 2:

Take 3:

Take 4:

Take 5:

Apparently bloggers are a massive fail when it comes to self timer and it takes Dan to get a good picture.

In any case, major thank yous go out to Monica and Dan for hosting a fantastic Sunday dinner! Personally, I think it was way better than a Jersey Shore Sunday dinner! 🙂