Viva Italia!
Last night we had Italian night. I don't know what drives me to do it, but sometimes I feel compelled to go completely overboard. For example, when making chalupas, I pull out the cactus...es... (cacti?) and put candles in sand and call the place EL GATO'S complete with little menus with a blue cat on them.

Right, so for Italian night, it was a bit disappointing to learn that "cat" is also "gato"... but it is "il gato's" instead. Fine.

After getting some inspiration from eHow's How to Host an Italian Night, we picked up some decorations from the cheap shop. A little ivy and grapes...

A $5 work of art and flowers from the market...

I also got a plastic red-checkered table cloth and an oil jar from the cheap shop. I got to use my little canapé plates for the first time. We had mini dishes with Italian seasoning, salt & cracked pepper at each setting and added olive oil just before the bread came out.

I managed to hunt down a chianti in the wicker-bottomed bottle on Friday to my delight. I really just wanted it for the look, never having tasted it before. It was a nice compliment to the food.

After the olive bread and olives/sundried tomatoes/artichokes, we whipped up the main dish -- my mom's simple yet spectacular fettuccine alfredo dusted with nutmeg and steamed asparagus. (Yes, that's butter. And no, it's not exactly a low-fat meal... but delish!)

We finished off with tiramisu cupcakes from the markets and a lovely Italian moscato d'asti recommended by the friendly man at the bottle shop. (Speaking of whom, I believe he even gave us the chianti for free after looking at our receipt later.)

So it was a really fun night. There was lots of laughter and good conversation. We were serenaded by Josh Groban and Pavarotti and good ol' Dean Martin. Good times.