Dinner With Friends

When preparing a birthday dinner for yourself;
Remember:
Inviting friends to a restaurant is so much easier.
Still, it is nice to share my grandma’s spaghetti and meatballs with my inner circle.
In honor of Gram’s birthday––I went all out.
Tomorrow, I’m going to sleep all day.

Family Dinner

When you grow up in a large (mostly Italian) family, dinner is more like a party...
Imagine an Olive Garden commercial with superior food and a crucifix on every wall.
Loud and energetic.
Glasses full of wine.
The odor of garlic permeating every room.
Hands flailing everywhere.
Lot's of cousins fighting.
Men in sharp slacks with Fruit of the Loom white 'V' neck T-shirts talking about their new lawnmower.
A bunch of women (and the flamboyant nephews) gathered around the kitchen sink gossiping.
To this day, dinner isn't special unless I'm surrounded by a scene from any Hollywood mob movie cliché.
That's why I'm so excited for tonights gathering on my partners side of the family.  It's the first time I've cooked for the whole family at once, and I want it to be just as delicious and chaotic as I remember growing up.  I spent the majority of my day yesterday preparing an Italian feast complete with antipasto and of course meatballs!
Mangia! Mangia!

Dinner with Friends

Friends make everything in life more wonderful...
What's better than homemade spaghetti and meatballs?
...Homemade spaghetti and meatballs with a group of your closest friends.
Like my grandma always says,
"Make new friends, but keep the old. New friends are silver, but old ones are gold."
Plus, life is short.
So enjoy more carb loading!

Spaghetti & Meatballs Part1

Spaghetti & Meatballs Part 2

Spaghetti & Meatballs Part3

Friends Part 1

Friends Part 2

Puppies

Cheese!

Surprise!

Spaghetti Dinner

One of my favorite childhood memories is Sunday Dinner!

Waking up watching. Watching cartoons until mom or dad told me I had to get in the shower and get dressed... Then off to church.  

Once church was out, I was eager to get to my grandma's house.

I'll never forget the smell when I'd walk into the house!

The aroma was so enticing I could hardly wait to dig into a huge bowl of spaghetti and meatballs!

As I got older, I sat and watched both of my grandmas prepare their unique recipe for the sauce.

Eventually, I started making the sauce with them...

Now, I'm on my own.  I've created a nice hybrid of both recipes that either grandma would be proud!

I love having friends over for my version of spaghetti dinner.
(Even if it's not Sunday...)

The aroma is the same, and so is the love from which it was prepared.

But I don't think it'll ever taste quite as divine as it did as a child!

Spaghetti Dinner!

Both of my grandmas are Italian, so you can imagine how wonderful Sunday Dinners are with my family. As a kid, I remember stuffing my face with endless amounts of spaghetti, meatballs, Italian sausage, braciole, various meets and cheeses... and more bread than you'd believe!

The dinner was more than just food though. It was a wonderful day of family, friends and fighting. (The fighting was not the best part, nevertheless, it was a major part of my childhood.)

As and adult, I love going home to visit my grams' and spend quality time with both of them in the kitchen. Over the years, I've slowly started to incorporate both of their techniques into my own unique hybrid of their delicious and savory recipes. (My food is never going to taste as brilliant as either of my grams' cooking, however, I'm not going to give up trying...)

Now, I look forward to having my own Sunday Dinners in Los Angeles. It doesn't happen as often as I'd like, but when all of my friends come together, our evening is a harmonious blend of laughter, food and yes even a little fighting!

Tonight, I'm hosting a spaghetti dinner. I've made over twenty meatballs, two pounds of Italian sausage, two pounds of stew meat, three pounds of spaghetti, all the appetizers you can dream of, and of course five bottles of wine!

The most important thing in my life is my family- and my friends are very much an extend part of my family.

I'm so grateful to both of my grandmas for sharing their love of food and family in perfect balance. It's the perfect Italian marriage!