We had our second Dinner Club on Saturday and I thought it was another big success. The food that was shared was fantastic, the friendship was great and the conversation was the best! I love this eclectic group of people… there is never a dull moment.
Dinner Club came and went and I was so caught up in enjoying the company that I totally forgot to take pictures of the food. You will have to take it from me, everything we had was delicious!
I did manage to snap a photo of our table before everyone came. Much to the belief of some of you (DeAnn!), I am not Martha Stewart. I do not have a crafty, creative bone in my body. That is why, when I came up with the idea for the place cards for our Rustic Italian Dinner Club, I was especially proud of myself! My husband and I have a collection of wine corks that we have saved over the past ten years. I decided it would be neat to cut a small slit into the top of the wine cork, use a die cut to cut oval shapes out of card stock scrapbook paper (the paper had a black and white design on the other side) and write each guests name on the blank side of the paper. Then, it was as simple as inserting the card stock oval into the slit of the wine cork. Voila – you have a simple, inexpensive and creative place card for your dinner party!
Now, for those of you here for the food, here are some of the recipes from our Rustic Italian Dinner Club menu. Each couple is assigned to bring something. I was in charge of the main dish and the bread. If you haven’t started a Dinner Club yet, I hope that my posts encourage you to do so! With the right group of people, it can be a lot of fun!
Appetizer: Ali’s Amazing Bruschetta
Salad: Rustic Italian Summer Salad
Bread: Italian Cheese Bread
Side Dish: Bacon Wrapped Green Beans
Main Dish: Spinach Chicken Manicotti with Creamy White Sauce (I used Manicotti instead of Cannoli & added garlic. Recipe recommended to me by SB’s Bea from On My Plate)
Dessert: Italian Cream Cake
Wonderful! Sounds like it was a delicious evening!
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What a fun night! I love entertaining and having dinner groups. Great menu choice!!
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I’d be pretty proud of myself if I thought of that too! Congrats on your supper club–I’m jealous, I had a great one back in PA but have never managed to find one here.
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Sounds like a fantastic night with great food and friends. I’ll be checking out those recipes soon.
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Very good idea! I should see how many corks I can collect (if there would be enough for the wedding)… I think R kept a bunch for his bagpipes – can’t recall what exactly he does with them.
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I think the table looks lovely! I especially love love love those napkins. So cool. Where did you get them? And the cork idea was very clever. You Martha you! 😉 I understand about forgetting to take food pics. I do that ALL the time. Especially when you are trying to coordinate all the dishes and keep it all hot.
FYI: I made the caramel rolls you blogged about a few months ago… OMG!!!!! They were killer! It is my lastest post.
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I love those place settings! They have a story to tell, as in a story behind every bottle.
Diner Club sounds like so much fun.
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Your “table scape”, as Sandra Lee would say, is just gorgeous! I love it. This menu sounds great. We have a green bean bundle that we make except it DOES use the canned French beans, you wrap is bacon, top with Catalina dressing and bake until the bacon is done. SOOO good! The chicken dish sounds wonderful too…something I could play around with a bit. I think that I really need to try and get a dinner group together next year!
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I love the wine cork placecard idea! I too enjoy the dinner club idea – food always tastes better with friends.
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Your table is beautiful and yes that was a fantastic idea for the place cards! The food ,it all sounds so darn good! I have to try allof these, espicially the green beans , oh do the lok good!!
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A dinner club is a good night out for all in this time of economic downturn. My Mom told of one time when she and friends had a dinner party called a “depression” supper. The main course was hobo stew with sides to go with it. She said it was a lot of fun, but the next day all the guests were “laid off”. My dad escaped that fate and went on to work all during the depression and the war and beyond at the same company.
I hate forgetting to take pictures! I have learned that the best friends are the ones who say, “wait! don’t you have to take a picture?” before anyone takes a bite.
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All of this sounds so good! I want to come to dinner club!
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Such a gorgeous tablesetting – just like a magazine picture!
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