Duel of the Italian stallions

Last night we went over to our newly married friends' house to do some long overdue catching up. I love these two, but I must say that whenever the new groom and Joe get together, I feel like I'm witnessing the battle of the Italion stallions. It's hysterical watching them challenge each other to see who knows the most Italian card games, who can pick the best wine, who can make the best Italian dish, etc, etc. They take themselves so seriously, but I was laughing to myself the entire time.

So not to be outdone, our friends made homemade ravioli with a mushroom sauce for dinner. The ravioli was completely from scratch and tasted just gorgeous. (I was supposed to be on recipe watch for my brother who wants to make homemade ravioli, but it was already done when we got there so I don't have any tricks to share. Sorry dude). To start us off though, they had a spread of olives, homemade red pepper hummus, baba ganoush and fresh pita bread. Joe was battling food coma before the real dinner was even served!

We were in charge of bringing wine and dessert, so we picked up four bottles on the way, including a 2006 Santa Margherita Chianti Classico that managed to survive our bottomless glasses and came home with us to enjoy tomorrow. During our last-minute scramble to come up with our end of the bargain (plan in advance? please!), we found a new bakery and cafe on Light Street named DeDe's across from Dangerously Delicious Pies. While I circled the block, Joe ran in and got four BEAUTIFUL individual desserts - a mango cake, traditional cream puff, strawberry shortcake and a chocolate mousse pie. The four of us took turns sampling. They weren't too sweet, so it didn't feel like dessert overload.

We wrapped up with a couple friendly hands of Spades and then went home. I will say, this round of the Italian stallion showdown had to go to our friend. But dinner's at our place next time.

Spending time at Gia's

Last night two friends and I went to Cafe Gia's, a place in Little Italy that we'd been reading good things about. Joe was stuck in a pancreas operation (shocker), so the three of us went ahead hoping he'd be able to join us later. Twas not the case, but anyway...

While he was going on his 15th hour at work, we were loving life. You can read the Baltimore Sun's review to get a feel for the place. We found it to be super cheerful, and we got so excited to see that they had kept a couple sets of French doors open to the street. We got a table in front of those doors,  and literally, we could have stopped there. Dining al fresco is perfection. I got the Misto salad (lettuce, grilled mushrooms, kalabata olives, tomatoes, balsamic vinaigrette) and homemade bruschetta for dinner. We shared a cannoli for dessert. Best cannoli I've ever had. They used lemon rind to sweeten it. Delish.

After reading a description of Gia's "chic, petite mom" in the Baltimore Sun review, I asked the lady who'd seated us if she was, in fact, the Gia's mom I'd read about. Bingo! She was charming, to say the least. She had very dry humor and was extremely self-deprecating, but in an endearing way. She joined us at our table towards the end of the meal and entertained us for a bit. 

At one point, she learned that my two friends are getting married in 3 weeks. She jumped out of her chair, clapped her hands together and exclaimed, "I have something for you! They just came in. I'll be right back!" And off she ran to the kitchen.

Uh, ok... She returns and hands my friends two rubber duckies, one dressed as a bride and one as a groom. Too precious. She went on to tell us that someone put two rubber duckies on the back of her toilet one day, and they just kept spinning around the top of the tank lid with every flush, and she thought, what the heck are these ducks doing here??? For some reason she felt compelled to buy more rubber duckies, and she began using them as bargaining chips for kids who came to eat with their parents. If you behaved, she'd give you a duckie. 

So yesterday she'd received her latest shipment of hundreds of duckies. Sports duckies, Hollywood duckies, bath duckies, you name it. And she said, "I got 5 or 6 pairs of these wedding duckies, and I thought, what I am I ever going to do with these. But then here you are today!" 

She was so thrilled to give them to my engaged friends. I, being the tasteful, chic girl that I am, suggested the couple use the duckies as their cake topper. Ha! You should have seen the look the bride gave me. I think they're going to pass on the rubber duckie cake topper :)