Last night, I had the girls, Bethany, Courtney and Danielle, over for Italian dinner night.  I couldn’t decide what to make so I went with a fun little create your own pasta bar.  It was not as good as I had hoped it would be, but I think that is because I am not really a pasta fan.  I just don’t like it very much.  Also, another problem with this type of dinner is that you have to keep everything hot and near the stove so it’s hard to move it to the table.  I am okay with getting food and sitting down, but then the presentation just isn’t as nice.  I guess it was a learning experience.  🙂  It’s perfect for a family or a group of close friends, but I would not recommend it for company you don’t know well or when you are trying to keep things simple!

Anyways – we had a great time chatting and sipping wine and water 🙂 and laughing.  We probably won’t have dinner together again until after the baby is born, so weird!

Courtney brought a great salad.  She got most of the ingredients from her CSA bag of the week which is pretty cool!  The one key ingredient she didn’t get from their was the candied walnuts from Trader Joe’s.  They were to die for! The salad included:

• fresh greens
• pear
• goat cheese
• candied walnuts
• balsamic dressing

It was amazing!

And for the pasta bar we had:

– some ugly looking veggies(broccoli and artichokes) that I spiced with Italian seasoning and salt and pepper.

Grilled  chicken with pesto

100% whole wheat penne pasta

Plus, homemade meatballs that I must have missed.  I will post the simple recipe next.

Bethany’s plate:

Courtney’s plate:

Danielle’s Plate

My plate.  I did like this meal for the fact that I could have just veggies and some pasta while others could have meat.  Oh and I could also have half a bottle of parmesan cheese – which I did.  🙂

Dessert was delicious.  Bethany brought pudding and vanilla wafers.  Such a simple sweet treat!  I missed the photo opp. and we just ate while we talked.

Thanks girls!

Share on Facebook