Social Italian Butterflies

I am so lucky to be marrying someone who loves having friends over to our house as much as I do. We are both very social people and with Miss Monkey running around, it's so easy and enjoyable to have our friends come over to hang out at our house. Sure, there is usually a huge mess the next day when we wake up, but neither of us complain and we always seemed to get it cleaned up first thing.

Tonight is no exception as we decided to host a night of yummy Italian food with two of our closest friends. On the menu was a delicious Pizza Quattro Stagioni (WeightWatchers.com recipe) and some modified Cannolis from a family recipe.

The pizza, which included dough made from scratch, came out perfect. We topped the pizza with some canned Italian tomatoes, basil, oregano, parsley, mushrooms, prosciutto, and artichokes. I had never cooked with prosciutto before (not sure how as most of my meals are Italian for my Italian fiance), but I HIGHLY recommend it. It was so delicious and a great alternative for ham. I wish we had saved some extra so we could use it in an omelet tomorrow morning.

As for the cannolis, the hunt for the right recipe continues. The history of these cannolis stems from J's grandmas. It has been said that they make the best cannolis ever. Unfortunately, the recipe was either lost or never written down because poor J's aunt has been trying to recreate it ever since. I never got the pleasure of having any of J's grandma's cannolis, but it isn't Christmas without the delicious cannolis that J's aunt makes.

A couple months ago, I discovered a strawberry rhubarb tart recipe that J has fallen in love with. One day I must have hurried through the recipe because I accidentally added too much of each ingredient. Oops. The result did not taste like the tart, but did not taste bad either. J thought the pastry part tasted like what he remembers from his grandmothers' cannoli recipe so we tried duplicating the mistake in the recipe tonight.

The result? Cannoli fail.

We'll try again tomorrow as his aunt left us a bunch of the cannoli filling and we'd like to use it before it goes bad. Hopefully tomorrow's batch comes out a little better.

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♥ Best Moments of the Day ♥

- Getting to run errands by myself! J watched Miss Monkey while I ran to the craft and grocery stores. I discovered that I spend way less money when I'm trying to keep Miss Monkey entertained, and seem to be in and out quicker too. Who'd have thought she'd be a money saver?

- Watching part of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. That movie is too cute and Miss Monkey seemed to love it! Unfortunately I was running around the house doing chores so I didn't get to sit and watch it, but J and I may watch it during the kid's nap time if we don't see it sooner.

- Getting this post done 15 minutes before midnight, still allowing it to count for January 2nd's post. Go NaBloPoMo!