Tablescaping with Chefs

Do you do Italian night at your house?  We sure do!  In fact we have Italian dishes quite regularly here at our house.  Spaghetti is one of my most all time favorite dishes to eat and to make so I cook it  quite regularly.  One evening about a month ago, I was setting the table once again for one of our regular spaghetti dinners and thought to myself I sure would love to do an Italian night tablescape.  Not only, was I thinking about how I would put it all together, I was thinking about the perfect dishes to use as well.   Of course, I was thinking about those specific dishes because I have been staring at them at them everyday at work ever since last October and had grown quite fond of them.

  But....the last thing in the world I needed around here was more dishes.  Do you think I let that stop me? Oh Noooooo!!!!  Especially when I figured out how I could buy them without getting my Mr. all upset.

I'll be honest with you.  This was what started it all, and this was for all intentional purposes as far as it was going to go when I first purchased these little guys.

They are part of a collection of fashion ceramics we sell at Stein Mart that is labeled International Chefs that are designed by artist Jennifer Garant.  They are salt and pepper shakers, aren't they just so cute? The Mr. said the great thing about these is you can always know that the chef in the black pants is the pepper and the chef in the white pants is salt.  LOL!

Well, that's part of the conversation we had with my own chef about these this weekend when he came to town for a visit.  Little did he know I had just a few more surprises to share with him.

I was so excited that the time had finally arrived when I was able to bring out the new dishes.  Of course, I wanted to serve Spaghetti on them that night as well.  I almost hit a snag when I asked my son and his girlfriend if they would join us for dinner at home and he hesitated saying they had already eaten Spaghetti only a few nights earlier.  I was literally holding my breath!

Then, when they agreed Spaghetti would be fine, I pulled out the new dishes and rapidly went to work setting the table.

I even pulled out my forever unopened bottle of red wine for a great prop.  LOL!  Don't worry, my son decided to supply his on bottle of red wine instead, so off to the store they went.

I started our setting with my white dinner plates from Lenox.

I then decided to use my amber colored goblets because I liked the way they coordinated with the new dishes.

The black and white checked napkins were a must but the bamboo flatware was a stretch I know.  I used them anyway because they were black and the only black flatware I own.

Now are you ready to see the new dishes yet?  Okay, here they are!

They are chef plates!   All of these are also designed by Jennifer Garant.  They are also part of the International chefs collection but I think these are all actually French chefs though.  Oops!

Oh well!  I still think they were perfect for an Italian night dinner.  Honestly, the more I looked at these in the store the more I kept thinking how great they would look with Spaghetti.

So when the right opportunity finally arrived I cooked up a big pot of Spaghetti sauce...

 ...and pasta.

Chopped up a little salad....

....and baked a loaf of Garlic bread.

This is what my son picked up from the grocery store.  No particular reason for the brand other then he wanted to try it out.

So, with the table all set and dinner made it was time to dish it out.

Yummo!

How cute is that?

My oldest, the chef and his girlfriend certainly thought so.

Especially when they realized that the dishes and the salt and pepper shakers were theirs to keep and were going home with them!

See, didn't I tell you I figured out a way to buy these dishes without getting the Mr. upset?

LOL!

I love it!  I just couldn't resist buying these chef dishes for my very own chef.

Could you?

I am so happy to finally be able to share this post with you at

Tablescape Thursday.

I've really been waiting on this one!

Hope you enjoyed your visit here, I'm glad you took a look.  Thanks so much for stopping by!

Have a great weekend Everybody!