A Little Italian Please

It's Tablescape Thursday again over at Susan's place. Be sure to drop by today and check out all the beautiful tablescapes.

As for my contribution......today we're going Italian and I'll tell you why. This time of year we always go Italian! The first of March is the anniversary of our first date.....and you guessed it..... we went Italian. The restaurant was a little place called Caesar's ....it was a classic in San Diego for many years. This year we had already made plans to celebrate, just the two of us, at a favorite place here in town. However, late Monday, after talking with some of the family we realized that Sunday evening was the only time we could all get together for my father-in-law's 89th birthday. Every birthday we can spend with him is important to all of us now, so obviously we'd have to change our date plans this year. But when? It had to be Tuesday....the next evening. This was an unusually busy week and every other night was already taken. So at the last minute we decided to just celebrate here at home. We were busy all day so I had very little time to prepare.....but sometimes those "hurry up put something together with what you have times" can turn out extra special.

I started out by setting the table in the diningroom using placemats and napkins I had purchased in Old Town San Diego many years ago. The lime green plates are stoneware from a little kitchen shop in Tulsa and the stemware is from an Arby's ( yes I said Arby's) Christmas giveaway in 1994. I used my flatware with the shell pattern because the beach had also played a part in that first date . That's whats so nice about being with someone you love for so many years.......there are all these little things that mean absolutely nothing to anyone but

the two of you.

The stoneware pasta platter and the individual pasta bowls are from Bed Bath and Beyond, made by Himark of Italy.

Next I added a small round of Italian bread and a decanter of extra virgin olive oil for dipping. Nothing goes better with an Italian salad and grated Parmesan cheese.

The soup is Tuscany Basil Tomato......its so simple to make but it

tastes as if it took all day.

The main dish was Angel Hair Spaghetti covered with a Vegetable

Sauce and Italian Sausage. A side of broccoli rounded out the meal.

Our beverage of choice was Strawberry Pomegranate

Italian Soda over crushed ice.

Over the years Jim has gotten used to me taking pictures all the time......

of anything and everything......and now he's having to get used to me taking

pictures of our meals!.....in detail! I guess that's true love.

This is how everything looked when we finally sat down to eat! I think

we were both glad that our plans had changed at the last minute.

We finished off our meal with delicious fresh fruit and lingered at the table

just a little longer than usual. You know you shouldn't rush a first date.

Our original first date ended with a walk on the beach. We didn't have a

beach to walk on this year,but we did do a lot of remembering about this special

little stretch of ocean in La Jolla called "Wind and Sea".

So here's to all the first dates in our future.