Another piece of Italian pottery, yep, that is what I acquired this weekend after a long year's wait. My favorite Italian pottery artist sends all her treasures to Germany (with her sweet parents) one weekend a year in August to the European Bizarre hosted at the base. Vendors from all over Europe bring their treasures and we can shop the entire continent in one shot! With this pitcher I now feel that my set is complete, well that is until I get a cake plate, but she hasn't made that. . . yet! Look for her peaking out in all my table pictures, she is not shy that new beauty!What better way to show her off properly than with a dinner party! That is a working dinner party. Real Simple once again has blasted me with a fabulous dinner party idea. Check out what we did here.
They couldn't have made it any easier, basic list of ingredients, everyone chips in on the prep and cooking and the result is a fabulous Italian meal and everyone gets to take home lots of mouth watering sauce to enjoy again and again.
I had fun with this party! By going easy on the decor (brown kraft paper at 95 cents a roll and already used . . . which means rustic right?! . . . candles) THEN I splurged a little on the food. There is a great genuine Italian grocery store near my home that is pure Italian heaven. There is even pure Italian men at the check out counter and let me tell you ladies I always require there expertise while I am shopping! Next time they may even need to help me carry my goods to the car hence I get to see the rolling Italian muscles in full form. I'll go ahead and buy that vat of tomato paste if that is my reward. Anyhoo, I bought proscuitto, a variety of olives, fat juicy grapes, gigantic crackers, mini mozzerella balls and a couple of other cheese guesses that turned out right on the mark. And that was just the appetizers. The main meal involved artisan bread, to die for salad and pasta with our newly group cooked sauce. And to finish it off, Italian dessert from my good and talented friend Holly. Holly actually has a degree in culinary arts so how lucky am I to be in her good graces? Holly, you can be a dinner guest any night of the week at my house so long as we get to be the grand recipients of your sweet masterpieces. . . Holly is always in charge of dessert!
So thank you to Paul, Holly, Liz, Mark and all the kids for a grand night, starting at 6:00 and finishing our last yummy bite around 9:30. THAT is a way to enjoy a good meal, spread it out over the entire night bite by bite with good friends and good conversations with the sound of happy children in the background. I'll take that any day!
6 comments:
WOW I LOVE that pitcher!!
So thats what you have been doing with your time,SHOPPING. I taught you well. The party sounded & looked like a lot of fun. But in Marks behalf I think he is just as buffed as any of those Italians!
The pitcher is beautiful. They have a shopping thing like that here, but it is in November. THey call it the Holiday Bazaar, and I love getting to shop all over Europe in one place. It really is fun! What a great dinner party! It looks like you had a great time. Maybe it is about time I get a subscription to that magazine.
Beautiful! I love the vibrant colors of the pitcher. And what a great idea for the sauce and an Italian evening. I know what you mean about Holly's desserts! Yummy!
What a beautiful vase! I'm going to have to go to Pronto and check out the good looking men I mean food! :-)
I had wondered why she was spending so much time at Pronto...
Mark
Nothing like a good meal with good company and a fancy beverage dispenser to boot. I love love love the pitcher. Where were those guys when we went to Pronto? Maybe they were intimidated because we had our own Italian dude(Gary) with us?
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