Key West Film Festival

I can not believe it has taken me this much time to write about this event. I had the opportunity to participate in the inaugural Key West Film Festival opening night! It has been on my bucket list for a while to go to a film festival, like Sundance or Canne, but admittedly so this item is lower on the list. Luckily I am living on an island that had its first film festival. Yay! On Thursday, November 29, a group of us girls got together to enjoy a film entitled - "While We Were Here" staring Kate Bosworth.

Let me back up a few beats. Prior to the movie there was a lot of chatter regarding how fancy we were going to be at this event. Evening dresses? Fancy hats? Sunglasses? I mean how important did we want to look? Rick of course just rolled his eyes at me.. and in the end I don't think I looked that important. Jess, our  friend, definitely looked the part of a movie starlet:) She wore a giant black large rimmed hat and sunglasses. You can guess the hat came from Cher's wonderful closet. We all met up at La Tratoria for premovie dinner and drinks. After dinner we walked three doors down to the San Carlos. (Please google this building. It is beautiful and we have walked by it numerous times but I had no idea what was inside).

Walking up to the San Carlos there was a red carpet.. no I am not making this up, and also there was press. I have never been to a red carpet anything so this was a new experience and I was a little nervous about the protocol. Luckily, it was the opening night and there was not a large crowd so we were able to walk right up to the red carpet and start our approach. To the left the KWFF had set up a large screen for people to stand in front of for a photo op.

After taking our fancy photos we went into the beautiful San Carlos. The inside of the building has really remarkable tile work and enormously tall ceilings with a winding staircase to the right that lead to the second story. We were presented with the opportunity to get t-shirts, bags, and towels as well as we were handed our programs. We proceeded to get our seats and waited for the movie to start. Looking around the theater again I was struck by the beauty of the building. It was not the most comfortable theater I had ever been, but I enjoyed the history around me. Then to my surprise Dotcom from 30 Rock was standing on stage and he was introducing the first movie of the inaugural Key West Film Festival. Dotcom's name is Kevin Brown - I had to google it because I only knew him as Dotcom. After the brief intro the movie started (obviously). "While We Were Here" is about a young married couple who move to Naples Italy for a few months (or weeks?) while the husband participates in an orchestra. The wife is a writer and proceeds to explore Naples and the surrounding islands where she meets a young man. If you have not already guessed the wife proceeds to have an affair. I won't tell you any more in case any of you want to see it. I thought the movie was interesting.. at times difficult to watch for the content as well as due to the camera angles and movement. Also the entire movie was shown in black and white and not being used to this format of film can be somewhat distracting.

After the movie was played a short question and answer session occurred between the audience and the director/writer of the film. That part was interesting because she clarified character content and actions, as well as she explained the reasoning behind the black and white imagery.

Seat on the left is Kat Coiro - the writer and director of While We Were Here. 

For numerous reasons the entire audience was invited to the VIP post movie party! This was being held upstairs and there would be champagne. I think I said - numerous times- we should do this because when will I ever be here again? Especially in the San Carlos at the inaugural KW Film Festival! We walked back to the foyer of the San Carlos and that is when the night got a little more interesting. Due to Cher having a sensitive motion sickness button, she had to leave the film pretty early. While the remaining group watched the movie Cher proceeded to walk Duval and then made friends with some of the San Carlos employees. After the movie we met up with her - Cher notices Kevin Brown and decides she is going to meet him.. now. She walks right up to him and next thing I know they are taking a picture and even kissing her on the cheek.

We all had the opportunity to meet him after that, he is very tall and really nice. After chatting with Mr. Brown for a few seconds we proceeded up the winding stair case to the VIP party. I know what you are all thinking.. leather sofas, DJs and celebrities.. I can neither confirm or deny this due to be true.  haha I am kidding. When we emerged at the top of the stair case it was very mild. There was a stark white room with two entry ways that was filled with about 20 people. At the far wall sat a table with champagne. After a few cocktails and also a picture with Kevin Brown we headed home.

VIP Party ! aka the Champagne Room :) 

Cher, Carolina, Jess, Kevin, Me, Annette and Erin 

Stair case photo shoot :) 

I am so happy we did this and I can cross film festival off my bucket list... well until Canne :)

Miss you all.. 

xoxo
Rick and McKenzie 

For Grandma Guigli

On January 1, 2013 my uncle wrote these words in a blog he has started, "I will find a worthy passion and pursue it" I am not for sure Mike is the first one to think that thought or to even write it (who knows he might be) but it hit a nerve in me. It makes me want to really think about my/our goals for this new year and all its possibilities... I have not made any grand new years resolutions, yet, but ideas are being processed. In the mean time I decided that I needed to do something I have never done to start this new year. So let me tell you a little story.

It was November here in Florida and I was chatting on the phone with my grandma Guigli. We were discussing the plans for Christmas and how she was glad Dana, her daughter, was going to be hosting the Guigli holiday party because with all those people it can be a bit much for her to handle. Just so we are all on the same page with my mom included the Guigli's are a clan of 6 and from that we have grown to an outstanding number for when we all get together. So, needless to say Grandma was looking forward to sitting and enjoying the company of her rather large and loud family. During our discussion I realized the first week of December was fast approaching and that, by tradition, is the day of making of homemade tortellinis. This has been going on for years.. ladies getting together, sitting around a very specific tortellini board and making this tiny delicious tortellinis. Grandma makes probably 1000+ tortellinis every year.. like I said there are a lot of us to feed. I tried to type how to "fold" a tortellini but it didn't make sense, so you will just have to take my word that it is a learning process. In the handful of times I have participated,  I have probably eaten about as many as I have folded correctly.

Grandma Guigli making tortellinis at Dana's house. This image was taken by my cousin Erin :) 

The finished product.

So I casually ask Grandma if she is getting ready to make her tortellinis? She replies with a shocking "no" because she has enough in her freezer... I can not even believe my ears! So I give Grandma a little bit of a hard time regarding family traditions and next thing I know it is mid-December and I have received a package in the mail for Grandma. In the box are 5 ziplock baggies containing tortellinis that Grandma had made the first weekend in December and sent to me. I was so very excited (!) and then dread took over because besides making the tortellinis the next very specific item is the chicken broth. It may not sound hard- making broth - but my Grandma buys very specific hand fed farm raised chickens to get the right flavoring. Key West is not short on chickens - but there are not many farms to buy them from here and I am not about to hurt the KW mascot. I was at a loss.. and decided I would just buy a normal frozen chicken and make it. I grabbed the recipe out of the wooden recipe box from Grandma and Rick and I headed to the store. Grandma if you are reading this (mom make sure this happens) Here comes mistake number one... While at the store I decided to just use chicken breasts instead of buying the chicken. What was I thinking.. obviously the taste come from the whole chicken. I purchased the remaining items with out incident and we headed home to cook :)

As I was preparing the large pot I started to realize that I have come quite a long ways in my cooking. It wasn't that long ago, I think I was 20, and I was standing in my kitchen trying to prepare a dish that required me to chop an onion. What? I have never done this, ever and I called grandma Guigli. I believe she must have done a great job in describing the process of chopping an onion and she did it all without laughing. If you ask her about it now she laughs pretty hard.. but it was worth getting the expert advise:)

Okay back to the soup. I placed the chicken breasts into the pot.. and started the cooking. I then turned to my other ingredients and prepared them to enter the pot. Following all the directions I only made one more mistake.. I didn't do the garlic right. I forgot to peel it out of the little outer layer. This would come back to bite me later when I was taking out the ingredients because the garlic was to be smashed and placed back into the broth. The outer peel then was a nuisance. I allowed the broth to cool.

At dinner time I got the broth out and tasted it... YUCK. It was so bland and terrible. haha I was disappointed, so I cheated. I had some chicken bouillon granules and used them to flavor the broth. Not my best moment but it worked! Sorry grandma:(  After bringing the pot to a boil, and adding the frozen tortellinis the soup was amazing and tasted like home.

Thank you so much Grandma for the yummy tortellinis- love you!

 xoxo
Rick and McKenzie

NYE

Rick and I have never really had any new year's eve traditions. Usually we are either enjoying the Guigli holiday party or recently spending pregame time at the Andersen's and then heading toward FTL for good company with friends. I was not sure what to expect here in KW and it wasn't until a few days before that I even did research into the traditions here on this crazy island. Apparently there are three separate parties, two on Duval and one at Schooner's Warf. At each of these parties different items are dropped. I realize this may sound like a rip off of Time's Square and you may be right but why can't other cities drop items?? I think all towns should have their own unique item to drop... could be a fun party. FLT could drop a bike during the count down... or the Banana Man? Either I think would be a good choice. Here are some unique items that KW came up with ...

First, Bourbon Bar on Duval is in the heart of the gay and lesbian district. On this end of Duval there are numerous drag shows, drag queens, and gay bingo. I do not know how this particular party started but 801 has been dropping the shoe for the better part of 15 years. The start of the performance besides the shoe itself is a drag queen named Sushi. When the countdown begins she is dropped from the second story to the giant crowd below where she they pops a champagne cork.. I do not know if she actually does a drag queen performance but I would imagine she does. This is by far the most popular area to be and you really can not see much unless you get there very early.. kinda like time square. Rick and I went on a reconissance mission to scope out our potential night. These are the images I captured of the shoe..

The second potential party is at Sloppy Joe's Bar. At Sloppy's they have a conch shell that is used to ring in the new year. I do not know the history of this as the shoe drop is much more popular on the island.

The last place in KW that has a party each year is Schooners Warf. Schooners is an ocean side restaurant by the marina. Outside of Schooners on a daily basis are giant wonderful pirate-esk ships that dock. On NYE they have a party and they ring in the new year by dropping a pirate wench down the mast of one of the ships. We tried to do some pregame on the area, but this was the only one that didn't have their stuff put up so there is not image. You can google "Pirate wench drop Key West" and you will see images.

After we had sufficiently looked into each NYE spot as well as talked with our friends about their plans we had finally decided upon starting at the Navy base and partaking in the "snowball" and then heading toward the chaos. So we helped host the snowball party at Joe and Cher's house. A snowball party is like a bar crawl in the fact that each home has a start time and provides drinks/food and then at a certain time everyone moves to the next spot and so on and so forth until it was midnight. There were four homes and about 20 people involved plus kids. Erin and I had hijacked Joe and Cher's home as ours and we hosted the first stop. Our menu consisted of delicious homemade dressing, sliced apples, prosciutto and goat cheese.. crackers with onion, goat cheese, parmesan, and prosciutto.... baked feta drizzled with olive oil and honey... watermelon balsamic salad.. and jalapeno poppers. If you had to guess what do you think I made based on the previous story of dinner with Erin? Yep, you are right I made it all Erin ONLY contributed the jalapeno poppers. What a lazy cook... okay okay you are all right I contributed the poppers.. but they were very good :) As the guest were set to arrive at 7, Erin was still trying to put together her delicious spread. I told her that I could help in whatever way would make her life easier. She gave me the job of watching the feta and when it was browning to take it out of the oven. I knew this would be a good job for me because I was already going to be keeping a close eye on my poppers. After 12 min the poppers were looking delicious so I proceeded to ceremoniously place them on a nice platter for serving. This took approximately 5-8 min as they were extremely hot and I was trying to make them look nice. If you are keeping track the feta was placed in the oven about 5 min after my poppers had started. By the time I was done making my one item look good I started to smell a little something... NOOOOO!!!!!! I quickly ran to the over and the feta was starting to "nicely" brown but the area surrounding the feta was burning. The olive oil and honey that had been drizzled over the feta was now on the bottom and it was black. I immediately feel my face turn red.. frantically pull the feta out of the oven to see the damage and turn toward Rick and Phil (Erin's husband) and say "I had one job... " they both start laughing. But alas the feta was saved as according to Erin that is what was supposed to happen. Oh thank goodness.

Prior to the start of the party we received a phone call from the Andersens. For the past few years, they have hosted a pregame NYE party at their house. This is the second year I have missed the party.. but I am so glad they called before we all got to much of the night under our belts. At the end of the conversation they tell us they are pregnant.. we could not be more thrilled!!! And then Dustin got to giggling that damn little giggle he has as Rick and I are screaming YESS!!!!  and tells us he is just joking. He got us.. he got us GOOD. I was just going to leave this as they were pregnant and the only reason I am not is because I love Kali too much.

Okay back to the party...

Erin and I after our part of snowball was over :) 

As the night went on the events tended to blurrrr together and that may or may not have to do with a certain beverage shipped from Iowa.. that Rick said would make a great contribution to the evening as Phil has never had that drink. The bottle didn't even make it to midnight. Thanks to who sent it.. it was adequately enjoyed and appreciated.

Classy. Your welcome mom:)

The last stop was at an outdoor party complete with a large television that was broadcasting the NYE party in New York. The final countdown of 2012 was thoroughly screamed and hugs/kisses were spread. Here is the image I caught of myself and Rick.. I think its a keeper.

Please come visit soon, we love and miss you. Here's to 2013 and all the possibilities it holds. 

xoxo
Rick and McKenzie