Italian Dinner Night Out

Happy Birthday Kristi!

this picture was taken in May 2012 (prior to us starting bootcamp)

Kristi was the reason why I started bootcamp last May.  She wanted to get in shape for her wedding (in November) and asked me to join the bootcamp class with her.  I am so thankful that she asked me to do this class with her because bootcamp really has been my savior.  Looking at this picture I can also see another reason why to continue bootcamp because my arms look so much nicer after months of classes. 

To celebrate Kristi's birthday, last night we went out to dinner at the Wild Olive on John's Island.  This was the first time that I have ever been to this Northern Italian Restaurant and I was very excited.  Donnie also loves Italian food so that was a plus.  (If I haven't mentioned this my husband is a bit of a picky eater.)

I wish I had taken more pictures of the food and the ambiance because I loved how it was decorated inside with the grapes and wine bottles, and corks, etc.  Here is one light that was on the bar made out of a wine bottle.  I love the idea of using wine bottles and corks as decorations.  There are so many neat ideas on pintrest and one of these days I am going to have to have an arts and crafts day and see what I can do.

For starters I had the little neck clams which were amazing.  They came in a spicy lemon-caper zupetta sauce which I need to figure out how to copy.  Delicious!  They had so many options to choose from that looked great but this was perfect for my appetizer.

little neck clams

For my entree I had the squid linguine with local shrimp, tomato, garlic, fresh spicy red chile, basil.  The squid linguine tasted like normal homemade pasta but was purple in color which was a little disappointing because I thought it would have some added flavor. I also did add a little extra chile for spice.  This dish was great and I would order it again but I would probably try something else on the menu since their menu all looked delicious.  What I really liked about the menu is that you were able to order your pasta dishes in half sizes, which was perfect for me since I did not share my clams. 

linguine with shrimp

Although they had tiramisu on the menu; which is my absolute favorite dessert; I skipped it because no one else wanted dessert and I really was full.  If I had dessert I would have been uncomfortably full which is not fun when my belly is already taken over by Baby Woos and there isn't much room for anything else.

When Donnie and I went on our honeymoon in Italy I made it a point to order tiramisu at every restaurant we went to.  Every place makes it a little different so I had to continue to order it and see the differences.