Dinner Italiano!

I know I promised pictures and results from the adult Chopped held last week, but I'm on my laptop and those pictures are on the PC downstairs. So I will make it up to you by posting something else pertaining to food.

You already know that we like to do themed dinners every now and then. I say it's for the kids but I probably like it more than they do. Last night, since it was my overfeed day (or cheat day, if you will) I choose *spaghetti alla puttanesca for dinner. Complete with garlic toast, garlic breadsticks, Italian sparkling water, wine and a lovely (omg - tasty) olive antipasto platter. It was so delicious.

And to go with the theme, of course, we had Italian music playing in the background, Italian flag colors, decorative Chianti bottle on the table, checkered table cloth....anything that said 'cozy Italian cafe' to me.

I'm scheduled to have another overfeed day on Thursday so we will do Italian night again, since Hanna and Eden missed out this last time.

We usually cycle between:

1)Chinese night - chopsticks, paper lanterns, special dishes, etc.

2)Mexican night - all the appropriate food, dishes, decorations - we go all out

3)Italian night (see above)

We need another one to add to the mix. It would seem logical that we incorporate a Swedish or Norwegian night, but we do those on occasion anyway, I guess. I'm up for suggestions. Any other fun nationalities we could add to our theme dinner nights? Nothing too off the wall - like cooking alligator or anything like that. Maybe, Hawaiian Luau night would be fun to do in the summer, for instance.

Please feel free to comment and leave suggestions.

Interesting footnote (found on Wikipedia):

* Spaghetti alla puttanesca (literally "whore's style spaghetti" in Italian) is a spicy, tangy, somewhat salty Italian pasta dish (AND MY FAVORITE - FYI) invented in the mid-20th century. The ingredients are typical of Southern Italian cuisine.

I'm cookin' like an Italian whore, yeah! I knew I was Italian in my former life!!