My Weekend Recap on Monday...

Backing up to Thursday, there isn't much to report other than my regular four-month check-up with my doctor.  She is happy with me losing a little more weight and my bloodwork looked great.  She actually took me off one of my meds! Hooray!

Friday we did some grocery shopping and I started preparing for our dinner party, scheduled for Saturday evening.  Joe has been busy learning his new accounting software that he is sharing with our son (son is sharing with him, actually).  The software he has used for years is too expensive for just the few clients he is finishing for 2017. It must be going okay because he hasn't been grumbling!

Saturday morning I hit the ground running.  I made meatballs and cut up some Italian sausage to bake in the oven.  It has been a long time since I handmade meatballs. The ones we buy frozen at Sam's Club are good and are what I usually use, but we wanted this meal to be a little more authentic.  I started the sauce while the meat cooked.

When the meat was done, I put them all in the sauce, on low, to simmer a few hours.  I then started the ricotta cheese pie for our dessert. It has been years since I made a ricotta cheese pie (one of Joe's favorites). The filling takes 12 eggs (makes two pies) and the sweet crust takes another four eggs. They baked for an hour and turned out nice thank goodness.  I didn't have an alternative planned.  Closer to time for the guests to arrive I put the lettuce salad together, prepared an anti-pasta to munch on before dinner and got the garlic bread ready for the oven. The stuffed shells (purchased at Publix and just as good as my homemade ones with a lot less trouble) went into the oven and I had time to relax a bit before our neighbors arrived at 5:30.

For someone who photographs everything, I didn't take one photo of the table, food or people.

Sharon and Bob live on our west side; Jill and Murray live on our east side; Anne and Paul live across the street from us.  We have all become good friends.  Jill and Murray are Canadians and are only here for three months. We like them a lot.  The evening went very well!  The food was good and seconds were had by all which is always great to see.  I also served pizzelles with the pie for dessert and Jill raved about them.  She wants to get a pizzelle iron now and asked to come over to watch me make them next time I do them, which was yesterday.

We talked about Mazarro's Italian Market while conversing at the table and we are now planning a caravan for the eight of us to go over one day soon!  That will be fun!

When I went out yesterday to get the Sunday newspaper, there was a thank you note from Jill clipped to our railing and I found a painted rock laying on the driveway beside the newspaper. I'm not sure who gave us the cute rock, but it sure made me smile when I saw it!  Someone knows me!

Sunday we were supposed to go to St. Pete with our friends, Al and Theresa, but we postponed the trip because of the rain in the forecast.  That left me with a laundry day and I made the pizzelles.  Jill came over with her cup of tea and watched the process for a few minutes (and ate one while it was still warm). She already found a pizzelle iron online and is excited to get it now.  It was nice to just kick-back a bit on Sunday.

The week ahead will be busy and we are getting visitors on Wednesday afternoon for an overnight visit with my other BFF, Karen, and her hubby Lee.  We sure are looking forward to seeing them again and for them to see our new home!  This is Karen and Lee on a previous visit at our old house, out by our pool.

I have taken a few photos of our cats over the last week or so. I'm always happy to show your our fur-babies!

 Lilly, our gray tubby cat (yes, I said tubby-she weighs a pound more than Vinny!)

 Vinny, our sweet boy.

Lucy, crashed on Joe's lap.

Happy Monday and I wish you a good week ahead! Thanks for your visit!  Peace & hugs.