This Taste of Italy date night was inspired by my partnership with Bertolli®.
Marriage is not perfect. The house will never be clean enough for him. There will always be something on the honey-do list she wanted you to get done days ago. And, until the kids flee the nest, both parties will never be well rested at the same time.
When you get married, it’s for better or worse. Yanno, for richer or poorer. Heck, it’s even in sickness and health.
And for the modern day young couple, it’s through night classes and work at home hours. It’s for the hustle and the side hustle. And when both parties are free for the evening… it’s for the romantic dinner and a movie before she passes out on the couch next to you.
Marriage is an exhausting source of never-ending entertainment companionship.
As long as you aren’t fooled into believing the myth of unicorn farts and the staged lives of social media.
Once you have children at home, dating your spouse is might seem impossible. Do you sacrifice your finances and hire a sitter? Do you sacrifice sleep by working around your midnight pooper and alarm clock baby?
Or, do you create your own Taste of Italy date night, feed your toddler leftover spaghetti, and double dip the night away on the couch? (Not to be confused with putting your hand upon my hip. When you dip, I dip, we dip.)
You double dip the night away and appreciate your spouse’s love of crispy bottoms. And I don’t mean yours. I’m talking about what happens when you are unable to check on the stromboli because your baby found a piece of who-knows-what in the corner of who-knows-where.
Stromboli pairs well with Italian meatballs.
Which pairs well with a Tuscan-Inspired sauce from Bertolli®.
Cut yourself some slack. There is no need to re-invent the wheel when you are racing against your child’s circadian rhythm. You can create a feast for two on the fly with a handful of finger foods and one jar of Bertolli®. You’ve got this.
Using your bottles of Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Balsamic Vinegar of Modena, whip up a small batch of bruschetta.
And no feast is complete without some sort of antipasto. It matters not how you serve the antipasto, as long as you serve it.
I guess the whole point of this Taste of Italy date night was to show you how easy it is to get caught up and forget to stop and double dip.
We’re all hustling. We all struggle. We’re all flawed.
Our date night started with me buying Michael a movie to ease the pain of a weekend full of deadlines. To which he responded with, “You want me to watch the movie I wanted to watch with YOU by myself? While you work?”
And ended with wicked garlic mouths, satisfied bellies, and a recharged partnership. It was exactly what we needed.
TUSCAN-INSPIRED MENU:
- Antipasto skewers
- Bruschetta
- Italian meatballs, served with a tomato & basil sauce and/or cheese sauce
- Breadsticks, served with a tomato & basil sauce and/or cheese sauce
- Stromboli, served with a tomato & basil sauce and/or cheese sauce
I found everything for our date night at Kroger. That’s where I do my grocery shopping, and the word on the street is that Kroger has a ‘Taste of Italy’ program in stores from September 23rd through October 11th. My store wasn’t quite ready, but I did chat up a few employees about what’s to come. Think… everything from pasta sauces, to kitchenware and Italian music. You should definitely check it out.
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Bertolli®. The opinions and text are all mine.
