August - Italian Night

August 11th

Last weekend I held the 1st of many themed dinner parties and tried to keep it simple by going Italian (everyone can cook Italian food, right?)
It was agreed by all that it was a great success, the antipasti served was bruschetta followed by main course of baked veal parmigiana, eggplant parmigiana, lasagna, chicken cacciatore with pasta, vegetarian spaghetti, tomato salad, and mini pizza wheels for the kids.
To finish off we had tiramisu, baked lemon puddings and coffee.

                        The Mood

To set the mood I set up an Italian themed display table (as shown) with all things Italian, I had tomatoes, garlic, basil (from my garden). pasta, lemons, olive oil, grapes and many other "Italian" type things.

             The Table

On the tables I had checkered table cloths with candels in empty wine bottles, carafes of wine 9both white and red) and baskets of Italian bread served with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.






  Then during the dinner I had Andrea Bocelli playing softly in the background.

The beginning

This is the beginning of a wonderful food journey around the world while staying in the comforts of our own homes. My idea is for a bunch of my girlfriends and I (with our husbands and children) to be able to socialize and have a good night out without having to look for babysitters, search for decent restaurants or miss opportunities to get together.
As there are 4 of us in the core group the idea is for the host to invite other friends to the event so then their guests get the chance to meet some new people. Each of us will only need to host about 2-3 events a year and all other months we will be going to others events. So as not to be a financial burden on the host all events are potluck dinners (every guest brings a plate).