Since the soup is on the sweet side, I'd go with dark green leafies, which are a bit bitter, for the salad. You could make it easy and buy a Mesclun blend or similar, or use arugula, kale and/or spinach. Top with chopped cucumbers, radish slivers, chopped roma tomatoes marinated in the vinaigrette, and/or anything else you like. I think that's a good lead in to the rapini.

Alternatively, for something heartier, you could do a chopped salad, and include some cured meats and cheeses, as well as lots of crunchy things. For presentation, you can put scoops on leaves of napa cabbage.

For just really different, you could do shaved and marinated Brussels sprouts (which I won't eat but I won't be there--just be sure your guests will, or use the crunchy part of a cabbage :) ), chopped persimmons, pomegranate seeds, scallions, and bell peppers, with an acidic dressing.

Funny- one guest HATES brussels and wouldn't touch them if they were wrapped with bacon and lobster!

Love the idea of pomegranate seeds.

Dessert: Pie. Cookies. Cake. Ice cream. Pick one or two.

You can do a fancy composed dessert, or something impressive, if you feel like it. You could do a croquembouche or pavlova if you want to be really fancy. Or something like a tarte tatin or clafoutis (if you still have cherries) to have your fruit and cake in one thing.

People really like chocolate chip cookies and vanilla ice cream, however, and while both are fantastic when homemade you can buy them nearly as good if you want to save some work.

Desserts: Boston cream pie

frozen cookie dough balls (they are sooooo good!)

fruit crisp (rhubarb, Apple, Berry etc...)

homemade ice cream (there are some no machine recipes)

walnut brownies

marble cake

peabut butter brownies

ice cream cake

cherry, strawberry, chocolate or whatever you want flavored pie

meringue

profiteroles

salad: Caesar salad

cranberries, spinach and spicy mustard

Also you could mix corn, sour cream and cucumbers for a salad. Best served within three hours of making.

An odd season right now. The transition into fall weather. Picked the last few tomatoes after such hot weather and need another coat layer today being so cold. (just 50-ishtemp but what happened to jacket weather?) Hot to cold in 24hours. We even lost power for 8hours Saturday in a storm.

We had steaks sunday and surprised DH, (he does the shopping list), asking for boston lettuce. Probably had it last February and not since. I made a salad with matchsticked golden beets, red onion, (mandolin sliced paper thin), and leeks just sautéed quickly...light marinade, tossed and chilled. Served over buttery boston torn. Bit of goat cheese. A sliced pear would have been nice.

Something clean and savory with pear sweet. Cleansing.

It is chilly. I want anything chocolate. Flourless gooey chocolate in a ramikin with fresh whipped cream on the thin side.

This is probably my favorite time of year at the farmers market!

Everyone loves chocolate and Ina Garten's chocolate ganache cake is a winner and it's fairly easy too. I've made it lots and always get rave reviews!

Martha

My favorite salad is a bit sweet, but if you used the original arugula instead of the spinach like I do, it would be more bitter. The recipe comes from Cathy/Mustangs and although I don't usually like green salads (I prefer my greens cooked), I really like this one:

Arugula Salad with Figs, Prosciutto, Walnuts, and Parmesan

4 tbls olive oil

2 oz thinly sliced prosciutto cut into strips

1 tbls raspberry jam

3 tbls fig balsamic vinegar

1/3 cup dried figs, chopped into 1/4 inch pieces

1 tbls finely chopped shallot

5 cups baby arugula

1/2 cup chopped walnuts, toasted

2 oz Parmesan, shaved into thin strips

1. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in 10 inch nonstick skillet over medium heat; add prosciutto and fry until crisp, stirring frequently for about 7 minutes. Using slotted spoon, transfer to paper towel to drain and cool.
2. Whisk jam and vinegar in medium microwave-safe bowl; stir in figs. Cover with plastic wrap, cut several steam vents in plastic and microwave on high until figs are plump, about 45 seconds. Whisk in 3 tablespoons oil, shallots, 1/4 tsp salt; toss to combine. Let cool to room temperature.
3. Toss arugula and vinaigrette in large bowl; adjust seasonings with salt. Divide salad among individual plates; top with portion of prosciutto, walnuts, and Parmesan.

Caesar is easier, though...

Dessert? Tiramisu? Or a nice autumn apple crisp? Even pumpkin roll or pumpkin creme brulee...

Mostly, have fun!

Annie

Because of the pears in the soup, I would stay away from fruit in the salad. I would just do a simple green mix with some toasted nuts a few very skinny slices of sweet onion, was going to suggest blue cheese of feta crumbles but see you have manchego in the pasta and perhaps asiago crutons in the soup....so have a cheese-less salad. perhaps a few slices of jicima or a little shredded red cabbage for some hard crunch and a simple honey dijon vinaigrette.
And I would do a lemon dessert. Either lemon bars or a lemon tart or even a little slice of pound cake with a dollop of lemon curd.
Enjoy...Even as late as it is I would eat some of that gnocci and lamb shanks!

Homemade croutons.

Please let us know what you end up serving!

Biscotti would be good for dessert. Not too heavy after a 4 course meal. You could have a sweet wine to dip them in like they do in Italy or serve coffee/tea.

We had this recently - usually I go with a traditional very simple one with anise seed, but for that meal I did apricot and pistachio biscotti modified from Joy of Baking website because those flavors went well with the meal:

http://www.joyofbaking.com/biscotti/CranberryPistachioBiscotti.html

I replaced the cranberries with chopped apricot and used about 100 grams each of apricot and pistachio so they were packed with them.

Dinner had been a lamb stew with Moroccan flavors. This went very well after the rich lamb main.

I also made chewy chocolate meringue cookies (which aren't like typical meringues because the whites aren't whipped but they are very chocolaty and good). I think the previous time I made them I put some walnuts in. Here is the recipe I used:

http://thecafesucrefarine.com/2012/06/chocolate-chewy-meringue-cookies/

You could also serve sorbet or ice cream with it if you feel biscotti aren't enough.

Great suggestions above.

For dessert you could make up a tray of individual lemon meringue and key lime tarts, along with little cream puffs filled with chocolate and vanilla cream, topped with raspberry sauce and shaved chocolate if desired..

Thanks for you help so far!

Here's the menu. Any tweaks or comments appreciated.

Nibblies- Warm brie with a chutney/topping (I have a few at home to choose from) served with crackers. Rosemary cashews (Ina Garten)

DOTE- Drink Of The Evening is a Golden Pear Martini; Pear Absolute Vodka, Frangelico, pear puree

Also offering Stella Artois and will have the dinner wines open for anyone preferring a red or white wine.

Soup- Honey Nut Squash and Pear Soup with Ginger and Ras El Hanout. Crispy Proscuitto garnish.

(French White Burgundy)

Salad- Seasonal Greens (escarole, bib lettuce), shaved red onion, butter-browned corn and Sun Gold tomatoes with a Banyuls and Dijon vinaigrette.

~served with~

Main- Pulled Braised Lamb Shank Au Jus (white wine, tomato paste, fresh herb bouquet garni) and Rapini tossed with Gnocchi and topped with shaved Manchego Cheese.

(California Pinot Noir)

Dessert- Apple Crumble with Vanilla Ice Cream and Salted (lightly!) Caramel Sauce.

(coffee)

The food all sounds good and the menu well conceived. My own preference would be for the rapini to be a plain vegetable, separate from the starch (gnocchi), but we are much more attached to vegetables than many. ;) It's not like you don't have plenty of other vegetables, so not any big deal. :) The soup sounds particularly good. :)

Are your friends big time drinkers? If not, I'd do either the drinks or the wine pairings, but not both. I'm sure you also have unstated water and coffee/tea, which help to dilute things. :)

Many good wishes to you for an easy time in the kitchen, delightful company, and a good time for all.

pillog- Good point. I am wondering if the cocktails will be turned down, but I have the ingredients on hand and DH will shake the drinks to order if they wish.

(everyone drinks, but they live about an hour away, so that tempers things a bit-at least for the drivers!)

My plan for dinner is to pour pairing portions, and they can certainly have more if they wish.

I'm pooped! I have just about everything prepped so there's very little to do tomorrow. I haven't thrown a dinner party in awhile, so I'm a little rusty.

Thanks for your continued input. It's good to have more eyes on the menu to see where the tweaks need to go.

Also, pillog, the main dish is something I've replicated from a favorite restaurant, which serves the lamb and rapini with cavatelli. I am having the darndest time finding cavatelli, but I have made the dish with fresh gnocchi (store bought) and it turned out nicely.

Here it is-will plate nicer in a white pasta bowl tomorrow:

Oh! I didn't realize it was all served together like that. I was envisioning the meat/juice on one side of a plate and the gnocchi/rapini on the other. Given that they're a whole served together in the jus, never mind what I said. It looks delicious.

When I can't find something specific, I go to Amazon. Sure enough, they have cavatelli should you want it in the future. The gnocchi look really good, however! I like the large parm shavings too.I'm happy to help, just as I always value similar feedback when it's given to me. :)

Thanks, pillog. I also saw the cavatelli on Amazon and was tempted to order, but when I made the dish with gnocchi, it was also delicious. The clincher for me is that the gnocchi take 1 min. to cook, so since that's a la minute, I won't be away from the guests for too long while I plate the main.

Salad: arugula with dried cranberries, apple slices and gorgonzola and walnuts.

With all that food, opt for a lighter dessert: lemon sorbet and vanilla ice cream drizzled with limoncello and serve some fancy cookies on the side. Added bonus is it takes no prep time.

Annie- I just might head that direction for dessert. I'm am BEYOND prepped out!

Well, it sure looks good with the gnocchi! I didn't realize how quickly they cook. So, the way to do pasta a la minute that way is you cook them to barely al dente (i.e., edible but still very very firm) hours before dinner, and spread on a rack on a sheet pan (or a perf pan if you have it) so they don't go mushy. Or you can do the ice bath thing if it works better for you to cook them a little longer. Then, when it's dinner time, you can put them right into a pan with sauce to finish, or if you're using them straight, for a dip in the boiling water just to heat up. That's just for futures and in case. Your plan sounds well thought through, and timed.

Re the dessert, if you already have the ice cream and sauce done, you could just thin slice an apple, fan a few slices on each dish, and plunk the ice cream and sauce on top, rather than bothering with the crumble.

OK, I took the advice here and made a course correction with the dessert. DH and I went to Wegmans this morning, getting some last minute things, and they had a very nice selection of sorbets.

Sorbets for dessert it is! I'm going to do a trio of sorbets (lemon, pom, mango) and offer biscotti with coffee to end.

Whew!

Ready. Please forgive any place setting faux pas ;-)

It's a beautiful table! No faux pas.

I only see two condiment dishes, so I assume those are serving pieces, like the vegetable bowl, not part of place settings?

Rules (which I don't see broken in your photo):

• Flatware (American): forks on the left, knife and spoons on the right, knife edge toward plate, forks and spoons first used on the outside working their way in towards the plate. Auxiliary fork and spoon may be placed at the top of the plate (e.g., fish fork and dessert spoon), in the direction as if they swam straight up there from where the bigger ones are (i.e., fork tines pointing right, spoon bowl pointing left). Butter only knives may also be placed above the main plate, but are usually diagonally across the bread plate.
• Glasses go above the knives and spoons (and diagonally down the right side a bit if need be) in order of (theoretical) largest inmost, so water, (soft drink or mixed drink), red wine, white wine, coffee. Think largest nose space rather than tallest. :)
• Salad plate to the left of the forks and bread plate above the forks. If there's only one of these, the places can be interchanged depending on what is most comfortable on your table.
• Nut bowls, individual seasonings and condiments, etc., as well as place cards, go above the plate and auxiliary flatware, wherever they best fit and make an appealing look, though generally the food to the left and seasoning to the right. (That is, if there's a nut bowl and individual salt an pepper the nuts should be left of the S&P, but it might look prettier to put the S&P on either side of the nut bowl, and that's perfectly fine.) If there are several foods, e.g., olives, nuts and compote, they should be arranged left to right in order of when they'll be eaten. But this group is all pretty loosey goosey and goes back to what's practical and what fits and looks best.

For any of these rules, there are exceptions and whole different ways of doing things. I only put them up to reassure you that your table is "right".

It is also fine to set for the first course and clear between courses. The "rule" for that is that you should replace a dish with a dish as you change courses, but in practicality, you can clear one course completely first. Assuming you don't have a footman for every guest. :) That's why formal place settings are as complex as they are. So there isn't a lot of bustle and asking, "Who needs a fork?" That's definitely family style. :) Plus, a fully set table is a way to show off your pretty things. :)

I did make an oops- had to switch the salad and dinner fork. The bottom plate sitting on the charger will stay there and the serving pieces which we'll eat from will be placed on top. I know it's not correct, but that bottom plate is going to serve as the bread plate because of convenience and space.

The one veg serving bowl is going to hold bread. I should line it with a nice napkin.

Thanks again for all your helpful feedback!

Oh, those two small condiment bowls are for butter. I put pats of butter in them and topped with alderwood-smoked sea salt. I like a nice bite of salt ;-)

Okay. I wasn't sure that was a salad fork. :) No harm if it had been the other way. The rule for guests is to watch what the hostess does. :)

There's no reason why you can't layer a service plate on top of a non-dish charger! I've seen a china service plate on a china charger and that's ridiculous! Having a plate to rest one's knife and fork, if you're serving your main in a bowl type dish like in your picture, is a good enough reason to do as you've done, and it's a party of friends so if that's where they have to rest other things, like the bread, well, they have a plate and can use it. I hate dinners where there's something like a carved wood charger, or something like your rattan, and one has something that holds over between courses and nowhere to put it. Perhaps that's also the origin of the rule to always replace a dish with a dish!

In other words, you made a pretty table setting that takes into account the available space and the comfort of your guests. That's actually the first rule. Make your guests comfortable. And it's the rule interleaved between all the other rules. And yes to the napkin for the bread bowl. That will be perfect.

Have a wonderful party!

Pretty table!! Love the simple white porcelain and the plain blown glasses.

I also noticed a couple of faux pas....first the fork placement which you corrected...and, is that a soup spoon? Have you no teaspoon? That is usually used as part of the table setting.
Also, the water glass goes at the tip of the knife, and the red wine glass to the right of the water and the white to the right of the red. The thinking being that red wine follows white...and you "work your way" into a table setting from the outside edges. What flatware wiil the guests use for dessert? I would place that at the top of the plate...you said sorbet, so I guess a teaspoon will be the choice. If you have double teaspoons, one should be part of the place setting and another placed at the top of the plate for dessert. A spoon with the bowl to the right.
Will you serve the plates as they are? Family style? or remove the soup bowls, ladle up in the kitchen and replace? Thinking about the napkins under the soup plate? Are there other napkins as well? Thinking about your guests sitting down at the table...do they lift the bowl and place their napkin in their lap? Will the soup already be in the bowls?
My point is,,,while it looks cute,placing the napkins under the soup bowl is not practical. Put it under the forks, easier for the guests.
Also, how are you serving the salad? Will it be passed to be placed in the bowls?
What is the butter for? Will there be bread or rolls? Where will your guests put the roll? On their dinner plate? Will you serve family style or will you plate? If you will plate, will you collect the soup bowls and under plates and replace them with a filled dinner plate?
Will there be wine bottles placed on the table? Will guests have a choice of having more white instead of the red? Or will the glasses be filled as they are seated.
Sounds complicated but best to think it all out rather than be scrambling to collect the plates and take to the kitchen to be filled or to have guests moving full bowls of soup to get at their napkin.
I guess what I am saying is you have a very formal dinner planned, with an informal place setting. Which is more than fine....but you need to think out how it all wiill work.

I'm happy to report that the dinner party was lovely. A good time enjoyed by all, for over 4 hours of food, drink and great conversation.

First, I was happy that some guests (the ladies) were excited about the Golden Pear cocktail. It was delicious.

I wound up doing the wine pours just as cocktails were winding up, and collected those soup bowls to fill. Everything was plated in the kitchen, since the table had only a little wiggle room.

The bread and butter stayed on the table, however.

Soup bowls were collected and DH plated the salad while I put together the gnocchi dish and we ate both together for the main.

We ended with the trio of sorbets- a really great way to end the meal, so thanks for the suggestion!

Some people opted for coffee, but no takers on biscotti, which was fine.

Everyone enjoyed the wine pairing, especially the white wine. They really LOVED that, so I'll have to thank the wine manager at Wegmans who helped me with the pairings.

We got a loaded dishwasher going and all the pots and platters cleaned before turning in for the night.

The stemware awaits this morning.

I think we'll go out for breakfast after ;-)

Thanks again!

Thank-you for the report! I'm so glad to hear that it came off so well! Stemware days are not my favorites, especailly when they run to five dozen, but I love your plan of the reward. I hope it was a great breakfast too. :)

Lovely table, and the dinner sounds delicious. I'm glad to hear that it went well, and I agree, breakfast out would be well deserved!

Annie

Yes, the local diner hit the spot after DH and I cleaned the stemware. I didn't take too long, but heck if I wanted to dirty another dish!

Eggs Benny hit the spot.

We still have leftovers to enjoy, too!