We had a dinner party in the garden last week.  There are 12 in our gourmet group and I set up two tables.  So pretty, I have to share.

This table has my 30 year old blue and white willow, Le Jacquard linens and my aunt's pretty Lenox stemware.  I love that I inherited them, they are a copy of an old Williamsburg pattern.


This table below has the discontinued and gorgeous sage green Arte Italica Portofino.  I only have 6 dinner plates and 8 soup plates and am on the hunt for more.   Also on this table I put out my rarely used  Lalique Langeais stemware that I see is over $300 a stem these days.  I will never understand how I thought to put these on my bridal registry 38 years ago.  I can only guess I must have thought myself as a very fancy miss.   They are soooooo pretty, but you can imagine that they don't get replaced when they are broken.  Boo.


We had a beautiful view of the veggie garden.



But that's the last of my pictures, because as soon as the guests come and I have a glass of wine, my picture taking abilities abandon me. 

So let me tell you how this gourmet group thing works.  There are 6 couples, we've done this for close to 30 years, and while we have known each other a long time, I think this would be a great way to meet a new circle and build a community of friends.

Even though we see each other often, we meet for this dinner about 3 to 4 times a year.  When you are the host, you pick a theme, choose the recipes and mail them out.  The host and hostess make the main course.  This is harder than you may think, as over the years we have "done" almost every cuisine in the world, Chinese, Indian, French, Russian, etc.  Last time it was at my house I had "The Last Dinner on the Titanic" and really did my research and created the exact last dinner served in First Class.  Another time I had a summer "Sunflower Dinner" and planted masses of sunflowers that year and had vases and bowls of them all over the house.

This year we did Tapas, as we had all just been to Barcelona and all loved the food in that beautiful city.  I found this site and easily picked out all my recipes.  In the kitchen right before dinner there was a flurry of activity as everyone put the finishing touches on their dish.  We are all pretty good cooks and do enjoy cooking, so it was a lot of fun.

That night everything was just great, the weather, the setting, the food, and especially my very lovely guests.