italy day 2009

i can't believe that it was 10 some odd years ago (yes, i can't conclude the exact date, it was either 1999 or 2001) when gina and i held our first italy day in our little bungalow in calgary in highland park. it was a small affair - me, her, diane, dawn and a few others who got together and drank red wine and noshed on some italian basics. (for those of you who may not know, italy day is a holiday that gina and i created one march 17th when we came to the shocking conclusion that everyone has a frickin holiday that involved drinking except the italians, so we created our own. why mid june? because it is my saint's name day on june 24th so we try to pick a saturday that doesn't conflict with our busy schedules on or near that date, but i digress)

italy day kind of grew in scope and in fact, in 2005, it made a detour and was held at david and sam's place...and wow, what a house wrecker that turned out to be. sometimes it been a huge bash (last year was prett damned huge - i think we hit 30 peeps in total). so i wasn't sure what would happen this year. in the end it was a respectable turnout since these people have never heard of the holiday (and really, why should they) but they came anyway and brought some amazing food. i, of course, made my lasagna and found italian sausage. and yes people....it was real sausage because i'm sorry....they may be noted for their bangers but british sausages are definitely not the best sausages i've ever had.

erin brought a fab rocket and parm salad (super yum) and the desserts this year were fabulous. bim made lemon cake, aleksandra made a lime torte, larissa brought tiramasu and costco cupcakes....seriously...so much food.

it was a ton of fun and i'm glad i did it again this year. maybe yesterday it'll be a home wrecker again, now that they've all been introduced to italy day. viva italia!!!

click here to see all the pics

ps - 5 sleeps til i go to taormina sicily i so can't wait. its been on my destination list for a while now.