This cold and snowy weekend, we've been cooking squash and making pies. Some notes: Those two from Johnny's are, squash-fruit-wise, about as good as it gets, if you can let it mature on the vine. The 'Confection' is the blue-grey one, and a bit dry and flakey, but boy, does it make a heckuva pie. The "Cha-Cha" is a Kabacha, again really dense, thick, but creamier flesh. My daughter will eat one with no salt/butter/anything, just a spoon. The Guatemalan blue is ok, but the two we opened up are still a bit watery. There's as much edible flesh in either a 7" dia Cha-Cha or Confection as in a 14" long Guatemalan blue. Seed and bake squash for an hour, let cool a bit, scrape flesh into food processor. Add two eggs. Add cinnamon, ginger, and honey, add milk. Whir up, pour into frozen store pastry shell, bake 60-70 min at 350. I like it refrigerated. For breakfast.

Get a caterer! That is a LOT of people to cook for. You can do a few things yourself and ask the caterer to serve if you ask nicely. If a caterer isn't in the budget, at least order prepared food or platters to serve. Cooking for 80 at a hall is just too much. Hard to say what kind of food. I would pick what your mom loves best -- keeping in mind what your guests will enjoy, too. If she's a baseball fan, for example, have hot dogs and peanuts and beer. If she loves travel, have exotic choices. But I think really your best bet is to give the caterer a budget and let him/her suggest things. That always works for me. For decorations, flowers always say "special occasion," but they can be expensive. You can make copies of photos of her at different stages of life and put them in inexpensive lucite frames of different sizes (you may even be able to ask the store if you can return them if you keep them in perfect shape) and put a few on each table for centerpieces, perhaps with a single flower or candle. We did that for my mother's 70th and it worked nicely. Potted flowering plants with a ribbon around the pot are also nice and inexpensive centerpieces (and a lot less work). You can give them as thank you gifts to people who help you with the party. You are so nice to do this for your mother! Good for you. I am sure she will be thrilled.

We started years ago at our Baja home having a "High Seas Poker Party". First year there were 25 people and 7 boats and by the 3rd year there were 25 boats, 100 people. It started at sun rise with a big breakfast, I cooked. My husband was the Pirate(we had the fastest boat in the bay which helped) and would select 2 or 3 lady assistant pirates for his boat. Everyone would pay to play and recieve a colored string braclet with a sample of the color his/her card would be. When the cards were found - he/she could only take the card that matched the one on his braclet. They also paid for cannon balls (tennis balls) in case found by the Pirate. The money paid the winner and runner up a percentage of the pot and the rest went to charity - school supplies for children, etc. The object of the game was to find where the Pirate hid the cards and collect enough cards for a poker hand. In the meantime, the pirate would try to capture your boat by throwing a tennis ball inside. IF he succeeded - he took a card but if the boat being attacked was able to get a tennis ball into the pirates boat first then they got a bottle of Cold Duck and did not loose a card. The game would end around noon and we would have a huge pot of beans, corn bread, French bread and assortment of desserts. My husband spent HOURS making up maps, puzzels, cartoons, riddles, etc. to give the people "hints" as to where to find the hidden treasure "poker cards". We lived on Conception Bay with 7 little islands to use for hidding clues and cards. It was great fun. Our home burnt to the ground with 8 others from a propane leak at a neighbors house so we have re built a home on a remote bay and can no longer play the same game. Instead, we have moved the game to our U.S. home and just call it "Poker Scavenger Hunt" Same idea, but on land and now there is a sheriff that tries to catch you and take a card from you. It is hillarious what people will do to prevent a card from being taken. We use the whole property to hide the cards and each year Ken thinks up wild ways to get clues to the cards placement. We start around 3pm with a sit down dinner on the patio around 6pm (when the game has ended) and one year the electrical transformer went out - ending the game early but was the NEATEST party ever. Most everyone stayed till the wee hours and chit-chatted by candle light and had a great time. They came back to the buffet tables for left overs/seconds around 11 or midnight. This party has grown each year also but we have been traveling this last couple summers so have not given it for two years.

Chase - The sandwich ring was take-out from our grocery store. It was fresh and delicious but cut into slices that were almost too big. Some people cut a slice in half which was just right if you were eating lasagna, too. Kari