On Sunday we had a going-away party for Susan, who is off to New York for a month, and then to Italy for a few months. (Once again, an opportunity for me to develop travel envy.)

We did the party potluck-style, with an Italian theme, naturally. I brought two of my favorite crostini recipes adapted from my favorite Italian cookbook,Trattoria Cooking by Biba Gaggiano.

If you're not familiar with crostini, it's an Italian appetizer featuring thin-sliced toasted bread adorned with delicious sauces.

The spicy tomato sauce (Crostini Piccanti) was moderately successful. I apparently overdid the red wine vinegar a bit. I used the recipe from the book unmodified, so I won't reproduce it here.

The sweet-and-sour onions, however, were a smash. As several people have asked for the recipe, I'm posting it here. Please do buy/consult the book if you enjoy this recipe. The only credit due to me is for very minor modifications and executing it well on Sunday.

Crostini alle Cipolle in Agrodolce

1/3 cup pine nuts (pignoli) 1/4 cup olive oil 2 medium white onions 15 fresh sage leaves 1/4 cup red wine vinegar (sherry vinegar makes an interesting substitute) 1/4 cup sugar 1 tsp unsalted butter Salt and black pepper to taste 15 thin slices toasted Italian bread

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Toast the pine nuts on a cookie sheet until golden, about 6 minutes. Set aside.

2. Thin-slice the onions perpendicular to the vertical axis, to produce thin discs with concentric rings.

3. Heat oil over medium heat in a large skillet. Add the butter and onions. Cook until onions are soft and translucent, stirring occasionally. Approximately 10 minutes.

4. Season with salt and pepper (I use a pinch of sea salt and fresh-ground black pepper). Add the sage leaves, torn or cut into small pieces. Add the vinegar and sugar.

5. Cook an additional 3 to 5 minutes, stirring frequently, until the onions have a rich golden color. (By now, the individual rings of onion should have separated and collapsed in the skillet, leaving you with a slurry of distorted onion ringlets)

6. Stir in the toasted pine nuts. Taste, adjust seasoning as necessary.

Cool to room temperature and serve over the toasted bread.

Enjoy!

If you get a Canon Powershot G2, you will want some of these things for wide-angle, macro, tele, infrared, filters and other fancy photographic enhancements.

Canon makes an adapter, too, but Lensmate's is cheaper in the long run because it accepts the smaller, cheaper 49mm attachments instead of Canon's 58mm attachments. Also, the 58mm Canon adapter is big enough to partially obstruct the flash, AF assist light, and optical viewfinder.

So, I recommend the LensMate, but the Canon is an option.

Brenna got a new digital camera for her birthday, which I forgot. (sorry, B—Happy Birthday!)

She also has cool new glasses.

Together, the glasses and the camera and Brenna have conspired to make sexy new photos on her blog.

Go look.

You know you want her.

Too bad for you she has a boyfriend. hehehe.

You can still tell her happy belated birthday, though.