Tastier Than a Peanut Butter & Banana Sandwich

I really wanted to come up with an Elvis song that would be make sense as the title of this post (you'll see why in a minute), but I got nothin'. Blue Suede Shoes? Nope. Heartbreak Hotel? Nada. Let's see, was there anything that he sang that would fit with a fun night and a great dinner? If YOU are more familiar with The King and can think of something that would fit, let me know. But all I'm remembering that's even close was Elvis' affinity for these weird sandwiches. And yes, our dinner was MUCH better than a pb & b sandwich (in my humble opinion!).

Saturday night was our turn to host dinner for some couples from our dock at the lake, and Dave was the star of the evening with his Italian feast. He fixed his eight-hour sauce, which is absolutely delish - meatballs, pork loin and beef ribs simmered in homemade spaghetti sauce for hours... yum! He also made eggplant parmesan and chicken parmesan to accompany the spaghetti - it was quite the feast!



This was only the third time he's fixed this meal in the 3+ years we've been together, so I was looking forward to it. It is quite a bit of work and prep, but our guests all loved it, & we had enough sauce left over for several more meals this week. My contribution to the evening's meal was a spinach salad with strawberries, kiwi and chopped walnuts, AND I picked up some cannolis from DiGiacinto's. It is one of our favorite places to eat, and the owner, Sam, fixed us up with four regular cannolis and four chocolate covered cannolis, all of which were devoured (Ok, yes, I had more than one. I'm horrible when it comes to good desserts!).

We enjoyed several bottles of wine over the course of the evening, our friends brought some great bottles of wine. And, in honor of Elvis' 75th birthday, we also opened a bottle that Dave had picked up a few weeks ago:



The jokes and the impersonations (thanks, Carl!) were better than the wine, but guess you can't expect too much out of an $8.00 bottle of Elvis' finest! I had to get a few shots of Rocky, he spent much of the evening in "hiding" under the table. He feels most comfortable where he is close to people but still safe and out of sight, silly dog.

Rocky was the only quiet one Saturday night, though; we all laughed and talked and enjoyed dinner and drinks for several hours. It was quite the evening, with plenty of wine and then someone (ahem, honey) broke out the shot glasses for some of the group.

What's so funny, Carl?

We were enjoying wine and chocolate cake - what a combo!

It was a great evening with some wonderful friends, and we also were so happy to have Paige join us for the latter part of the evening and stay through Sunday afternoon. She had been in Dallas visiting a friend, and Saturday night was one of the last nights that Dave would be able to see her (since he is traveling this week) before she leaves to go back to college on Wednesday.

This week has already been busy, with a meeting last night and then Jace getting braces today and having a basketball game tonight. His mouth is hurting tonight; I remember how it was getting braces, back when I was his age. I'm sure it will take him some time to get used to that mouth full of metal, poor guy! Time to get some dishes and laundry done, and get ready for another day.