The Big Night Dinner

So i know you have all been patiently awaiting for a post regarding "The Big Night" Dinner.
It was fun, I tell you that. My first Il Timpano was a success, and now that I have made it once, I can make it again fairly easily. I won't lie; I was very nervous and needed a drink and a Xanax afterwards. Hell, I needed a drink and a Xanax putting the whole thing together.
Much thanks to the BF. Could not have done it without his support, both emotionally (see comments regarding anti-depressants) and physically (that sucker weighed 30 pounds).

Me rolling out the dough. I had to move to the dining room table because I did not have enough space in the kitchen! This is a perfect excuse to build a new kitchen!

Lots of cheese, eggs, sausage, salami, meatballs, sauce......

Antipasta... Italian for "Pre-Party"

Slicing Il Timpano. My hands were shaking, for real. I felt like I was performing the coda in Black Swan. For real.

 

 

My guests honored Il Timpano with some bad-ass wines. That would be a Magnum of Barolo (Thanks to Uncle Ben!). And an Echezaux (Thanks to Uncle Tom!). Shut your mouth.

Cannolis!!!!! I made them myself!!!! (Shells were purchased)

Look how much fun everyone was having!

G-POST: Spanky Shows Off His Modeling Skillz.

 

When I posted this picture on Instagram* a while back I got two responses:

"Draw me like one of your French girls"

"Lindsay Lohan's Playboy pics just keep getting hotter"

If you have a caption of this picture, please submit it in the comment section. Spanky will be judging the best caption, whoever wins will get an actual photo autographed by Spanky. Be creative! Think outside the box!

(I'm working on the follow up of The Big Night dinner. Like the meal itself, the post cannot be rushed and is a work in progress. Pazienza, Mi'Amici, Pazienza....)

*I post a lot of pictures on Instagram. Do you have it on your phone? It rocks. The computer geeks that started the whole gig (and I think there are maybe 10 of them) just sold the whole kit and caboodle to Facebook for $1 billion. I like it because the photos make me look hella skinny. I may be switching my blog feed to Tumblr, because it is Instagram friendly. Ciao!

What Would Gia Do?: I Would Re-Create The Big Night Dinner

What Would Gia Do?: I Would Re-Create The Big Night Dinner: I love a good culinary challenge, assuming it's not a wedding cake, or involves butchering something bigger than my dog. Otherwise, b...

I Would Re-Create The Big Night Dinner

I love a good culinary challenge, assuming it's not a wedding cake, or involves butchering something bigger than my dog. Otherwise, bring it on. I Ain't Skeered.

So I have been threatening for a while to throw A Big Night dinner party. If you have not seen the movie, you must! Got directly to Netflix as soon as you are done reading this. It has three of my favorite things: Louis Prima's music, Food and Isabella Rossellini (I dare you to say her name once. You can't. You have to say it over and over again: EES-ah-Bell-Ah ROHSS-ah-Leen-ee, EES-ah-Bell-Ah ROHSS-ah-Leen-ee)

  

The Piece de Resistance is Il Timpano.

                                                              It looks like this:

                               Il Timpano courtesy of Proud Italian Cook. Great recipes!!!







                                                       It should taste like this:

I have been cooking for two days already: Sauce, Meatballs, Dough. i have even made the Ricotta filling for Cannolis! B T Dubs, if you live in  Birmingham, Western bakery in Mountain Brook has Cannoli Shells.
Stay Tuned Amici!

G-POST April 19 2012

Good Thursday Everyone!
First of all, Thank you for all of the sweet thoughts for me and the BF for our wedding anniversary yesterday. We are good together, and better with our friends and family.

So, Here is Spanky in one of his favorite spots, the couch. He only gets on when his blanket is down on his spot.

And, there were two comments/questions from last week's post:

BF: says, "Spanky loves The Pretty One (me) the most." I say, not true! He loves whomever is rubbing his belly at the time.

Sammy Cakes asked: " How much fun is it to chase chickens?" A little background info for you all: Spanky came to us from the Country, where he was a Redneck Yard Dog, whose favorite thing in the world was to chase, and ultimately dine on, the Neighbor's Chickens. Neighbor 'bout had enough and was gonna solve that problem as one does in the Country, etc... So now Spanky is a City Dog. He loves it more than being a Redneck Yard Dog, although he does go back often to visit his Country Cousins.
So, to answer your question Sam, I don't think Spanky misses Chasing Those Chickens one single bit, because now he's fat and gets his belly rubbed and goes on long walks and everybody loves him. And he gets couch time.

Three Whole Years....

Today is me and the BF's third anniversary! I have no idea why he still likes me. I am a giant pain in the ass and I know I drive him crazy. But he seems to be happy... I think it is because I feed him good food and make sure he has ironed shirts. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the mood-altering pills I buy off the street and slip into his coffee in the morning. That's just insurance....

But I love him to the moon and back times infinity. He brings me fresh flowers once a week, tells me I'm pretty (and he makes me feel pretty, too! I know he means it!), DVRs my favorite shows, hounds me to maintain my blog posts, supports me in my career, makes me laugh, makes the bed, lets me buy shoes and doesn't yell, encourages my love of zombies....oh the list goes on.....

                Isn't he handsome????!!!! Stop looking at him!!! He's mine!!!! Back off!!!!

His favorite things in life include baseball, soccer, plaid, corn and Iowa, as evidenced in the picture above...

                                  But I think I am his most favorite thing in the world.

G-POST.

Also known as Gratuitous Picture Of Spanky Thursday.
Spanky is my dog and I love him very much and I think everybody else should, too.
He is very photogenic, so I decided to feature him on his very own regular post, starting today.

Every Thursday will be a new picture! And you will fall in love with him, I promise.

If you have any questions for Spanky, like about how fantastic it is to live with me and the BF, what he likes to eat, the best time to take him for walks, etc, just direct them to my comment page.

Enjoy!

I Would Wear This Dress with This Jacket

So If I were going out to dinner with the BF, to celebrate our wedding anniversary, perhaps, I would 

 wear this dress:

 

                                              Amanda Uprichard dress at Piperlime




 And this jacket (which I would wear with a whole bunch of stuff because it is pretty cool...)

Elizabeth and James jacket also at Piperlime



But then I would need shoes, right?

Hmm.........

Aha!

Stuart Weitzman "Naughty" shoes from ....Piperlime!

Black Walls Are Pretty Cool....

...And I'm kinda obsessed with them. Got a feeling BF ain't too keen on the idea, but if I could have a black wall somewhere in my house, I would use these as inspiration.
So very French-y and chic, n'est-ce pas?
What do you think?

From Top to Bottom:

www.MyNottingHill.com
Apartment Therapy
Kelley Proxmire

My Friends Are Awesome. Are Yours?

I am in a Sunday Night Dinner club and it is super exclusive. You have to be awesome to be in SND. How awesome? You have to be willing to accompany me to my first trip to the Olive Garden. My friends are the bestest ever ever because not only do they take me to the Olive Garden, they get dressed up in evening gowns, hats, kilts and tuxes.
Look, I took pictures:

"Holy Crap! This menu is so big! What should I have? Pasta? Pasta with cream sauce? Pasta with cheese sauce? What about Pasta with Meat Sauce? Is anyone gonna have the Pasta?"

K came all the way from 1992! At least her hair and dress did. Seriously, this dress was worn to Clinton's 1992 Inauguration. How cool is that?

The Silver Fox came all the way from his lounge act in Vegas, "The Silver Fox Does the Classics". He is there every Friday and Saturday night at the Bellagio. Sometime Cher joins him onstage. Miss Wales came all the way from Awesome-ville.

Also from Awesome-ville, Darling Jeff,  A.P. and Sweet Heather. A.P. came all the way from a gig at a strip joint. (It was a fundraiser at the Furnace, but for the Birmingham Aids Outreach, not strippers. She worked very hard on this fundraiser and it was a success!)

Zombie shoes, bread sticks and NEVER ENDING SALAD, WHAT, is this HEAVEN???!!???

If you ever need somewhere FUN to go, please got the Olive Garden. For real, Not get all
 "Marilyn Hagerty" on you, but it was fun and the service was awesome. Davida, our incredibly patient server (like, Mother Theresa-kind and good. she takes her job very seriously, y'all) recommend that  I have the "Stuffed Chicken Marsala "and sub Fettucine Alfredo for the Mashed Potatoes, but it is just way too close to swimsuit season to put cream on the carbs so I opted for the "Chicken Vino Bianco"


So my friends are awesome and I love them and they make my life better and I can't imagine a world without them. I'm a super lucky girl.

A Live Blog of The New Girl

Greetings all.  This is Boyfriend.  I will be performing the job of Stenographer.  Why am I stenographing?  Good question!  Well, it is about 10:00 on a Friday night.  Princess Pretty Face has had "just enough wine" to hinder her typing skills, and we are about to "live blog" this past week's The New Girl.  We hope you have already watched it...

This week's "Live Blog" of The New Girl is brought to you by DirecTV, Poliziano Rosso di Montepulciano and a frozen Costco pizza.

All quotes are from PPF, not the show.

We are less than a minute in and I have already had to pause it. "Wait... giggle giggle.  Will you go back a little bit?"  Apparently Diane Keaton's autobiography is hilarious.

Alright, we are a minute in.  I don't know if I can do this.  She is laughing hysterically again.  PPF has repeated about half the dialogue.  Laughing intermittently.  We are, apparently, excited because we are seeing CC's apartment for the first time, and some Former Eastern Bloc model accidently ate a cookie because she fell on it.  Oh, and Schmitt is in the couch... "Oh, sorry... Jew person in the couch."

2 mins - Winston just told Nick that CC and Schmitt are sleeping together.  PPF thinks that secrets are First World Problems.  Oh, she laughed hysterically at the face Nick made when he found out the CC and Schmitt are knockin' da boots.  PPF laughs a lot... we haven't even finished the credits.

5 mins - Jess speaks like a Native American when she is angry. Two moons have passed.  Two moons!

10 mins - PPF loves Nick's soul patch, Winston's braids, and is worried that Spanky didn't see the TV.  We had to go back.  She was less impressed with Schmitt's fatsuit.  We had to look up the "I am Claire" t-shirt.  Is a "Lost" reference?

11 mins - Jesus Hawk on a Speedboat.  PPF didn't inhale for about 30 seconds.  She is very much an 'out-laugher'.  I was worried for a second.  Actually, 30 seconds...

12 mins - Schmitt is giving Nick pointers... Jess is very, very confused.

13 mins - Self-Completing is a fantastic euphemism for masturbation...

15 mins - The Lucky One looks like a terrible film.  I am thankful that I am no longer in college, or dating a college girl.  Therefore I am not forced to watch that film

17 mins - Jess in a full winter outfit did not amuse PPF as much as I expected it would.

21 mins - "He just went full Poppins!"  Winston yelling sit down was amazing and scary, yet amusing, all at the same time.

22 mins - Winston's Regulation was epic.  Nick's slow-clap was perfectly acceptable.

25 mins - "He's a super-human right?  In this story of the Raven with John Cusack as Edgar Allen Poe, is he supposed to be a super-human??  What?  What?  Is that worth typing?  It is a genuine question!"  - While trying to fast-forward through a trailer for  The Raven starring John Cusack as Edgar Allen Poe.

27 mins - Zooey Deschanel has the worst running form of any human on the planet.

28 mins - "Does that say 30 hours?"  Upon them taking 3 hours to finish a 10K.

30 mins - "This is a funny show.  This is funny.  It is a good show."

And that is a Friday night.