Second Friday goes Italian!

We're back!

Have you missed us? We sure missed you and cooking! Well mostly cooking.... just kidding.

Ahem, so Second Friday was awesome to the max.  And of course it wouldn't be SF if the following happened:

1. We didn't take a whole lot of pictures

2. Some pictures are blurry

3. Missed out on some great photo ops

Get what we're getting at? The photo taking still needs some work but meh we'll get there.

 Ah the life of a lemon. So yellow. So mellow. So in need of a fellow. We didn't actually use lemons at all. Alixx just brought some over for Kelsey. 
That's what best friends do. 

 Back to cooking. 
So for appetizers we made toasted ravioli and caprese. But one at a time.  Beat up those eggs.
Kelsey is just way too fast for Alixx to capture in the picture. Hold still Kelsey!

 Then mix bread crumbs with parmesan and give it a good mix. 

 KELSEY!  

Basically dip a frozen ravioli in the egg, then in the bread crumb.

 Line em up and stick them in the oven.

 Once we had that all ready, we got the caprese salad going.  First things first, we got some balsamic boiling in a pan. You want that to reduce just a little to get it a little thick. 

 While that's going we cut up the tomatoes, since Kelsey's sisters were in town (a lovely surprise since it made Italian SF seem that much more authentic!) we cut the tomatoes up small enough to make them bite size appetizers. Same with the mozarella and basil.

 Awww yea! 

And those ravioli you ask? Simply divine. 

 Next the main course! We made chicken sausage with pasta. The recipe was provided by Kelsey's sister, Cass.  It was heavenly, it was magical, it was everything Italian food should be.

That did have to sit for a while but it let us get the side dish ready.
The side dish being antipasti salad, recipe again provided by Cass! 

 So throw some halved cherry tomatoes and mozrella pieces into a bowl and toss with some olive oil. 
Refrain from eating.

 Next mix some pesto and red wine vinegar.  See that basil in the background? That's from Alixx's garden. Please we beg you, plant some basil. Harvest that basil. Eat that basil. You'll thank us.

 Keep an eye on that sausage, make sure to stir every so often.  Alixx tried to catch Kelsey's lettuce chopping in action. So close.

 Kelsey found this fancy little pack of meat especially for antipasti salad! It worked perfectly. We used the whole package. That's the only way to do this.

Throw all that in and mix it up. You could try to refrain from eating, but it won't work. We promise.

Everyone dug in and loved the food (naturally) it was awesome sharing that Italian food with a big 'ol group of people!  Serve the meat sauce over some pasta and seriously try not to eat the whole pan.  The original anitpasti salad recipe says to make it more as a layered salad, but a chopped salad is so much easier! Especially for a big Italian family dinner.  

We're sorry we deserted you but we're back! Check back for updates!