Casserole and Pizza Sunday

Time for some more recaps. Our internet still isn't working, and we hear that it won't be up and running for a few days longer. I am no longer upset about it. There are many more important things in life to get emotional over. The death of Ossama Bin Laden? That's worth getting excited over. Internet not working? Eh. I'm over it. I'm still able to blog, so what do I have to complain about?

Backtracking to my Chicago visit, my parents had a brunch for family and a couple of my friends at my house the day after the fun Saturday night. My brother Jon was also in town (he lives in Houston but is moving home to Chicago next month), so my family had a big get-together.

For the food, Jon and I requested the dishes that we love from home but can't get when we are away. We wanted our family recipes!

Below: Spinach cheese casserole. A mix of spinach, melted cheddar cheese, cottage cheese and flour mixed together and baked in the oven. For me and my brothers, it's a favorite.

Below: Kugel. It's a must-eat for Jewish families. Kugel is a sweet egg noodle casserole. In our family, we always mix in cottage cheese, butter, cinnamon and raisins.

Below, you can see two kugel casseroles side by side. On one, my mom added a crunchy topping made up of Corn Flakes with butter and brown sugar. In the oven, it all melts into each other and is insanely delicous. I usually pick the flakes straight off of the casserole and eat them.

Going from left to right of the picture: fruit salad, lox platter, tuna salad and an Asian noodle salad that my dad made

One of my family friends made another casserole. It was pineapples on the bottom topped with cheddar cheese and crumbled Ritz crackers. I asked her to make it for me, because I loved it in the past.

Cody was so well behaved with all of the food and people around.

When we finished eating, we went outside for immediate family photos. From left: Jon, me, Ben, my mom, my dad

My mom didn't like the lighting ourdoors, so we took more photos in the kitchen.

Jon had a plane to catch back to Houston, so my girl Andi and I drove him to Midway Airport (a.k.a the Far Airport). I headed back on the highway going east (towards the downtown area) instead of west (the way I should have gone), so I had to drive through the city and got caught in some nasty Sunday evening traffic. Luckily, I had Andi to entertain me the whole way home (although she was distracted by Words with Friends on her Blackberry).

When I finally got home, I had new guests waiting for me and new food. We invited my parent's friends Patti and Ken over for dinner (my friend Irene and her fiance Luiz also came over later), and my dad made three different pizzas. He didn't make the crust, but he did everything else himself.

I can't remember what all of them were, but I can tell you that they were amazing! My dad is so good at making pizza. The shrimp pizza was the winner of the three for me, but it was in tough competition.

Good thing I didn't overeat at brunch! I needed to save room for these.

After dinner, we sent Irene and Luiz home with a full bag of homemade cookies from brunch.

It was a great day!