I was so excited to have my knitting girlfriends over last night! It was the real get together that I’ve hosted in my new home, so we had a big potluck dinner. I was busy all day with work and 6:30pm rolled around before I knew it! I chose to make edamame (in the microwave), homemade pita chips (toasted in the oven with salt, pepper, oregano, paprika, and cheese), and little stacks of muenster cheese and prosciutto on organic water crackers. I also put out some sweets like mochi and lotus seed mooncakes.

The girls started arriving at 7:30 and I realized we had nothing to eat on! Luckily, I’ve got tons of cute plastic bowls from Ikea in all different colors, so we used that with my mismatched cups and silverware. It was actually a good thing that my cups don’t match because it was easy to tell which one was yours! (I’m usually the one walking around at family functions with a marker to label everyone’s disposable cups!)

We had a mountain of food from spiced cookies with buttercream frosting to cheesy broccoli and rice to my fav black bean & corn salsa to beautiful fruit bowls! It was great to catch up with the girls again since I hadn’t seen them in months! I learned that K’s getting her master gardener certification, JI is a budding cookie biz entreprenuer (her cookies are amazing and she’s taking orders for the holidays now, so lemme know if you want her info!), and JH is trying but taking her temp at the wrong time :-P

I was really happy because we had a great time and aside from paper napkins, we didn’t use any wasteful disposable products! (We didn't even have bottle drinks, just my Brita.) I guess by not planning ahead, I was forced to be green =) We’re throwing a little party this weekend to celebrate the arrival of our new grill and smoker, so I have to remember to go buy some more plates because those little bowls aren’t gonna fly when it comes to bbq!

In case you're heading to Omaha, here are some of my thoughts from the trip that might help you plan yours! It's a great place and I wish we had more than one and half days to spend here!

Village Pointe Farmers Market:
1. My first stop was Jisa's Farmstead Cheese. I got to sample all sorts of handcrafted cheeses and even though I don't have a fridge in the hotel, I couldn't help myself and bought a package of dill cheddar chunks. Yum!
2. Next, I chatted with Kelly who has an urban farm called the Black Sheep Farm. I debated whether I could buy a pot of her beautiful flowers and get it home in one piece, but we both agreed that it wasn't going to happen.
3. Then, I saw a vendor (sorry, I didn't catch the name) that sold herbs and honey, and asked if she also had bee pollen. My friend Jess of  Foodmayhem.com told me about the benefits of eating bee pollen, and I wanted to see if the taste differed from farm to farm, but alas, she didn't have any. However, I did learn all about growing my own herbs and am going to start with oregano when I get home!
4. Lastly, I chatted with a lovely lady from the Old Market Sourdough company. I bought a huge loaf of multi-grain sourdough bread from her. I can't wait to make sandwiches with them! Her neighbor was a dietician named Karisa that gave me lots of great advice on restaurants to check out and where to shop. She also gave me healthy recipes to try out. I'll definitely post them once I've attempted to make them!

Shopping in the Old Market:
What a cute little area with tons of boutiques and eateries! Even though E was tired, we visited just about every shop! If you like incense, organic cotton and hemp clothing, greeting cards, candles, soaps, funky jewelry, and other fun tchotchkes, then you won't want to miss this!

Cabella's Sports and Outdoor Gear:
I'm not sure if meeting Warren or visiting this store was the highlight of E's trip! He was in pure heaven here because he loves shopping for this stuff! Luckily, they stuff for me to check out too! I started with their clothing section and picked out a sporty purple polo (for future golf outings), a very technical pair of shorts for my trip to Asia, and a cool hiking tee for my brother.
Then I discovered the cute general store inside the store! They had delicious fudge samples and great chips and salsa with a kick! I wanted to bring some salsa home, but it definitely wouldn't have passed through security in my little ziplock baggie.
After a while, I found E and we checked out binoculars, camping furniture, bbq grills, and smokers. We can't wait until we get a grill and smoker! Mmm! While dreaming about the food we'd smoke, we realized that it was almost time for dinner, so we paid and headed out.

The Drovers (Steakhouse):
As we waited for our table, we noticed that everyone was leaving with doggie bags (unfortunately, in styrofoam boxes <sigh>)... but there was none of that for E and I (you know, because we want to save the environment!).
We were starving, so we dove into the fresh, warm bread with creamy butter as soon as we sat down. I also started with their salad bar while E had their sinfully cheesy double-baked potato chowder (I "helped" him finish it.)
The Drovers is known for their "Whiskey style" steaks in which they put marinate the meat in a Whiskey concoction for about 15 minutes -- just long enough to have a hint of flavor without it overpowering the taste of the steak. I had a fantastic filet mignon and E enjoyed the rib-eye. Both were cooked to perfection -- a nice salty crust on the outside with a juicy pink inside. 
The sides were just average. My broccoli was steamed to death and E's fries were good, but nothing to write home about. Our dishes also came with an odd ring of apple that was cooked in some juice. It was very dark in the restaurant, so I couldn't really tell. Oh well, it was a small built-in dessert, which was good because we certainly didn't have any room left for a real one!

Famous Dave's BBQ:
By 4pm on Saturday, I was geting hungry... and definitely couldn't wait until our 8pm dinner reservation at The Drovers, so we stopped in on a whim for a pulled pork sandwich with mashed red-skinned potatoes. The sandwich was very light on sauce and pork, but what we had was delicious... so we stopped back again the next day before heading to the airport for more take-out.
This time, we ordered a lot more food since it was going to be our lunch and dinner (yes, we spent nearly a whole day in transit!) We ordered the XXL Slab of ribs, beef brisket, and more pulled pork. On the side we had their garlic red-skinned mashed potatoes (very good, though a bit heavy on the garlic), potato salad, and scrumptious corn muffins.
As we ate in the airport, I could tell that we were the envy of everyone! E and I agreed that our fav was still the pulled pork. The ribs were flavorful, but not as fall-off-the-bone tender as we would have liked, and I thought there was a little too much fat on the meat. Either way, this was a bijillion times better than the $5 bag of chips that Frontier tried to sell us on the plane!