Dinner Party for 8

I have been looking forward to hosting a dinner party for 8 ever since I inherited my parent's old dining room table. I had almost as much fun setting it as I did whipping up a delicious meal! It was kind of hard to get a picture to capture just how fabulous the table actually looked (if I don't say so myself...) !

To help set the scene I picked up some gorgeous flowers at the local flower mart. I found some stunning fall colored proteas and winter white hydrangeas, and I couldn't resist a precious bunch of orchids.

On the menu:

Antipasti:

I LOVE antipasti trays. I found all of the ingredients at my local Andronico's: salami, prosciutto, marcona almonds, parmesan cheese twists, salted rosemary crackers, and an assortment of olives.

Ina's turkey sausage lasagna:

This was my first attempt at lasagna. Since I do not own a 9x13 glass pan, I just used two square pans. This is a DELICIOUS lasagna. The blend of cheeses (ricotta, mozarella, parmesan and goat) along with the hot Italian turkey sausage was out of this world. It was also delicious the next day!

Butter leaf lettuce salad with roquefort bleu cheese, bosc pears, candied pecans and a mustard viniagrette:

Chris came up with the ingredients for this delicious salad, and carefully layered each one in this gorgeous salad bowl from my Auntie Di. We pulled out my magic bullet blender to make the mustard and olive oil based dressing. The cheese was definitely the stand out item of the salad!

Pumpkin bread with dulce de leche sorbet:

Unfortunately I do not have a photo of the pumpkin bread (you can thank several bottles of red and sparkling wine), but I can say that it was very easy to put together. I only wish I had used more pumpkin; the recipe called for 1 cup, but the bread was a little dry and could have used more. I'm not sure my guests noticed though, since I topped it with dulce de leche ice cream and a mint sprig. Empty plates are always a good sign!