Dinner Party

First and foremost, here are photos of the new house.  I am sooooo happy to be living in our own home finally.  After 3 months being married we're living like a married couple!

Now everyone can see where they're going to stay when they come visit!  Both couches are sofa beds, so we have lots of room.

Last night Fabri and I threw our first dinner party for his cousin Giovanni, his girlfriend Brunella, their baby Lucrezia (the cute little monkey from the previous post), and Fabri's friends Antonio and Laura.  Fabri's cousins Gaetano and Detta couldn't make it because Detta's train was delayed and she didn't get home from work until 10:30 poor thing!  Without those two it was all medical people and me.  Fabri's a doctor, Antonio's an ER doctor, Giovanni's a doctor, Laura's an OR nurse and Brunella is an emergency/ambulance nurse.  Poor me, I'm always the odd one out.  The only American and the only non doctor.

For dinner Fabri & I chose an Asian theme basically because he really likes my stir fry.  But when we go to everyone else's house for dinner, they serve multi-course meals.  So I scoured the internet and found some extra Asian inspired recipes to sufficiently stuff our guests.  When they arrived we had chips & salsa (always) and I made cauliflower popcorn which was a hit especially with the baby.  These appetizers and the drinks were on the bar which was a cool way to begin.  Next we moved to the table and I served egg drop soup.  Everyone was really nervous about it at first, but mostly it was well received except by Giovanni who doesn't like onions.  Fabri & Antonio both had seconds.  Next was a salad with Japanese Ginger Dressing I made with our new food processor.  That was really fun because I didn't have to chop anything.  This also had a lot of onions, but everyone liked it except for Giovanni.  Laura asked me for recipes for just about everything.  After the salad came the main course, chicken stirfry with veggies.  Antonio and Laura had had it before when I made it at Fabri's parents' house, but Giovanni especially was really impressed.  Of course I served it with  rice and soy sauce.  By that time everyone was like "Jess, enough food," but Fabri had made dessert, pana cotta.  People were surprised and asked if I really made it, and I said no, I only cleaned up after it (he made a mess!).  But it's not hard, you just buy it in a box and boil the milk and cream, add the ingredients packet and put it in the fridge.  Fabri came up with the idea to serve it with Bailey's in addition to the traditional caramel and fruit toppings.

Everyone loved the house and I have to say that our first dinner party was a huge success.  I didn't want to cook Italian food for Italians, but I can't wait to cook Italian food for American guests!