Long post....

Well first off, the beautiful D-Lo left a comment asking about the Italy party, I'm sure at some point I posted here about. So, to answer her question....

July 5th, my parents had a party at their house for the group of people who traveled to Italy last October. The slide-show/movie I created from the pictures was going to premiere and as an extra treat I cooked for everyone. I went over early to start, and got the slow cooker going, and prepped the salads. Here are pics of what I cooked.

Chicago Dog Salad
The original recipe calls for making this with hot dogs, which I personally don't like, so I substitute Italian Sausage. This is sort of a grown ups version of a loaded hot dog. It has a mustard sauce, and is made with cabbage, onions, etc. It is like getting a hot dog at a street vendor with all the toppings.








Italian Green Been Salad
This is a recipe from my sister, real simple, and I leave out the tomatoes. Served cold, with a Italian salad dressing, and sliced up mozzarella string cheese.










Italian Chicken & Potatoes
This is made in the slow-cooker, with Chicken, Potatoes, Parmesan cheese, Italian Salad dressing, and Italian seasoning.











Beef & Cheese Ravioli in a Balsamic Brown Butter Sauce

Simple Ravioli, and as it's called, tossed in a Balsamic vinegar and browned butter sauce.









Cinnamon Fettuccine Carbonara

Pancetta (Italian Bacon) and smoked Bacon with a cinnamon carbonara sauce.











Parmesan Encrusted Pork Chops

Pork Chops with a Parmesan crust.











Venetian Panino's

This is a variation of a panini sandwich made at Harry's Bar in Venice. It has a Dijon, garlic, Gruyere spread on it and is yummy.










The food was a success, I had requests for recipes, and everyone had a different favorite. After cooking, we mingled downstairs to watch the 45 min movie. I explained what each person was receiving (dvd with movie, dvd with everyone's pictures, and their original discs sent to me). We all settled in and had some good memories from the show. Lots of applause later, and a few $$ tips, and that sums it all up.

Ok, second group of pics are a few that turned out good from Friday night. A friend who is a professional photographer took me and another mutual friend out to give us a lesson on how to take good night shots. We met on the plaza around 8:30 and I rolled back into my garage at 3am, which I spent the rest of the weekend recovering from.

We started out at the Liberty Memorial.
































Finally a shot of Union Station from the Memorial, and we moved onto the next site.
















Down at the Power & Light District I learned how to take tracer shots of car lights.












We drove a little outside of the city limits, and for these next ones, I had to squeeze between a chain link fence, to sit on a hill overlooking the highway.















That about sums up the Italy party, and my Friday night. Sunday I went to a double header movie with my mom. We saw Hellboy II, and Batman: The Dark Knight. Last night I cooked a Jalapeno-Lime Chicken for lunch today, hope it turned out ok!

ciao!