On Friday evening we went to the hubby's aunt's house for a family dinner. As usual, the spread was incredible. She always has a cheese plate on the table, and garlic stuffed olives.
The meal included a spicy lasagna, Caesar salad, chicken wings, garlic bread and veggies.
We barely had room for dessert, but I was able to enjoy a couple bites of cake, some berries, and a cheesecake filled chocolate.
On Friday night I refined my menu for the dinner party I planned for Saturday. I went with an Italian theme for this party. I like to do themed dinner parties because I need parameters. With all the possibilities of flavours and foods, an indecisive foodie like me cannot narrow things down without placing limitations on a dinner. By choosing an Italian theme, I could ignore the French Onion soup recipes I have been dying to try, and the Saag Paneer the hubby has been craving and just focus in on one type of cuisine.
I spent Saturday afternoon shopping for food, cooking, baking and prepping.
We started the evening off toasting with Prosecco as an aperitif. We then enjoyed antipasto.
This baked Fontina dip was a big hit.
Next we ate Margherita pizza.
After the pizza we made our way to the table where we enjoyed polpettes. They are essentially giant meatballs with tomato, mozza, and roasted red pepper.
The polpettes were followed by Italian Wedding soup and Focaccia bread with oil and vinegar. I realized this morning that I forgot to put the spinach in the soup! It was still great though.
The main course was lasagna. I went to take the lasagna out of the oven at approx. 9:30 and asked the hubby, "Why is the oven off??!!!?" We had the lasagna in there "cooking" for an hour with no heat :-) Ahhhh, mishaps in the kitchen.
Needless to say we ate lasagna at around 10:30 instead. It turned out alright because we were able to let some of the other food digest so we would have room for the lasagna. We had some limoncello while we waited.
The desserts included tirimisu, and pochettes.
Overall it was a wonderful evening with some pretty awesome friends.
If I was having you over for a dinner party, what would you want the theme to be?
Be creative!
21 comments:
wow, looks like you had a wonderful weekend filled with delicious foods!
i LOVE hosting dinner parties! my roommates and i used to have 'ethnic themed' potlucks which usually included either greek, indian, or asian dishes. Mmm
ooh I would love to come over for a dinner party. Everything looks great!
I can't get over how much thought and effort you put into your dinner parties! It shows just how much you enjoy hosting them and is also pretty darn amazing!
I would love to have a "Hawaiian" themed dinner one day. I love tropical flavors!
what an amazing party!!! all those baked goods, the proseco, the time with friends..i love this post!! :)
Wow. I am coming to you when I start planning my wedding. Seriously, you did an amazingly beautiful job with the dinner party. I especially love the look of those chocolate stuffed cookies (if that is what they are).
A few dinner parties I would love to go to:
A diner style dinner party with malted milk shakes, fries, burgers, sandwiches, etc.
Dinner on a stick. Where everything has to be servied on a stick. No plates, no utensils.
Chocolate. All courses need to have chocolate. That's a given
Children's birthday party, but for adults. Serve all kid friendly foods, with an adult twist. Like a mac and cheese bar, make your own sundaes, ants on a long for appetizer, etc.
JOLENE!!!!! I'm so sorry for being MIA recently...I've been soooo busy. But now that I'm finally catching up with your blog...OMG. Your pictures are getting more ad more stunning! either that, or I'm freaking hungry and man...is that brie I see? The polpette looks amazing, too, though I've never seen them before....yummm~
For my dinner theme...I think I would like to make it a southern theme: country biscuits, gravy, garlic greens, etc. :-)
This looks delicious! I am so impressed with your kitchen skills. I'd love to do a Mexican themed dinner party. There are so many options and tequila could be involved! :)
Oh my GOSH what a lot of work!!! I admire your ability to be so creative and risk-taking in the kitchen with making different dishes.
The Italian theme seems like the best idea to me...you cannot go wrong with Italian food. Period. Though I do love me some Mexican food.
Holy crap, lady! Your theme party looks so good and SO delicious! I love your cheese display- it looks gorgeous and so delish.
I would want a local foods party- all of your favorite local items would be so fun.
I am convinced that you throw the best dinner parties! It wouldn't matter to me what the theme is-I'm sure whatever you made would be out of this world!
I can't believe how delicious every thing in this post looks. What an amazing food weekend!
Ah, I can't look at these pictures any longer.
Tiramisu and Cheese topped anything are some of my favorite foods.
Looks like you had an amazing weekend ;)
...can i cry because i am SO jealous! WOW...so jealous YUM!!! great pics by the way!
Well, your Italian-themed party looks pretty spectacular, so I would be down with that. I think Indian would also be fantastic. :)
That's it..next time I'm coming to your dinner party.. I love Italian food....that tiramisu looks divine.
no words...if I ever go to Canada can you adopt me? I love how you guys are lovers of CHEESEEE. Every dinner party you have always includes a fabulous cheese covered dish!! If I had a theme party it would be Asian...even though I am chinese I can't cook the food!
apparently all the best dinner parties are happening in canada!
Wow! These meals look absolutely amazing!
YUM! I am in the wrong family, lol!
I would want you to do a v-day party, so I can copy everything you do, and do it for my v-day party ;D
Sounds like a fun weekend full of delicious food! Esp the cheese! That reminds me - I need to buy grapes for my cheese plate for my party on Friday!
I am not very creative when it comes to dinner parties - I would stick w/ a cuisine like Mexican or French!
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