Allora…

Thank you, Aunt Betsy, for the sassy ruby slipper ornaments. They look great on the tree! THANK YOU! ILY!

And it wasn’t good.

I always have leftover coffee from the morning so I used it to make a martini. Woo!

1 cup leftover coffee, chilled
Flavored coffeemate, however light you like your coffee
2 shots whiskey

Combine in a martini shaker filled w ice. Shake and pour into a chilled martini glass. It should make 2 martinis.

Michelle is now a Lopez! The wedding weekend was a ton of fun, and really beautiful. After the rehearsal on Friday we went to the Nazareth/Easton football game, which was surprisingly a blast! Nazareth beat Easton for the first time since 1998. It was a good way to get everyones mind off the wedding and helped us to relax for a bit. We went to Red Robin after for old times sake.

At the wedding, michelle looked amazing, the food was SO good, and there was a ton of dancing—so much that I didn’t even get to try the cake! Mom & Dad almost won the anniversary dance- the couple that beat them had been married for 40 years. Michelle and Chris’s first dance was a salsa-they took dancing lessons and it was really so cool. Here are my pics….no shots from the ceremony, bc well, i was busy.

One friend down, two more to go!

this past weekend was maggie’s birthday party—despite hurricane irene’s best efforts to ruin it! everyone was there….the whole fam. dan and the girls came early, and got some good play time in w/ maggie and jack before the official party started. then, the farm animals came, and all the kids at the party, and neighborhood kids were SO happy. pony rides and other cuteness ensued.

the rain started about half way through the party, but what can ya do!

cuteness overload. cute babies, mini ponies:

I made these yesterday for two reasons. Mom gave me a zucchini from her garden (thanks, mom!), and Uncle Dom would have gobbled these up. The recipe is from Donatella Cooks: Simple Food Made Glamorous.

I love Donatella Arpaia’s restaurants in NYC…especially Kefi (despite its abominable and egregious logo and menu). Despite the subtitle of her book, I don’t really think that this recipe is very glamorous. In fact, I can think of a great many things way more glamorous than frying these bad boys in a kitchen w/ no ac. I can agree with her in that these are simple, requiring very few ingredients, but big on taste.

My fritters differ from hers in that I used dried parsley, and fried them in half olive oil and half canola oil. Didn’t want to waste too much of the expensive stuff!

Phew,

Last week was a doozy. We lost our beloved Uncle Dom. If you knew him, you will never forget him. Remember him scooting around the kitchen offering you everything from blazing hot coffee, orange juice, to a Klondike bar? Singing to himself as he did this? “La la la la”

xoxo <3 RIP Dominick Lopano

I was home Sunday–Monday this weekend after going to my friend’s annual Fourth of July party in Scranton. Dad grilled london broil on sunday and so mom made me take some home. Tonight I made a steak sandwich with the leftover sliced steak….

1 crusty roll
7 slices of steak
4 slices of tomato
lots of lettuce/greens
sauteed onions
pepper jack cheese

tasted even better with a cold beer out on the deck.

Was going to go down by the river to watch the fireworks, but that didn’t happen, so I was able to run up the street to sleepy hollow high school to catch the display. About half way thru I thought, hmmm I wonder if I can see these from my deck. …..Scurry back down the street….. from the front lawn, in between the trees, the fireworks looked like they were right on top of me.

Edited down photos (about 100):

The whole kit and caboodle (about 300):