For the appetizer I made a beautiful liver and veal pate, recipe below.

That was a show stopper in my opinion, the best pate ever.

I served it in the living room with little french bread toasts

and champagne grapes marinated in Couvoisier.

For first course I served crab cakes.  I do love this recipe, it's fast and easy but

the key to a great crab cake is starting with the freshest and best tasting crab you can find.

 I let myself off the hook for dessert and cut up some apples,

a Pink Lady, Mackintosh and Honeycrisp, (Honeycrisp won!)

bought some Scharffen Berger chocolate in 3 different cacao strengths,

41%, 62% and 82%, (82% won!)

and served Ina Garten's macaroons and currant cookies (a tie)

and we had a little taste testing.

That was fun and there is no man on the planet that is not pleased 

with a platter of cookies, apples and chocolate!

Veal & Chicken Liver Pate with Muscatels in Cognac

A coarse and crumbly pate.  Make a few days in advance to improve the flavor.

For the muscatels:

1/2 C cognac or brandy

1/4 lb. muscatels on the stem

Put the cognac and muscatels in a shallow bowl, cover and set aside at room temp for 24 hours.  Every so often mix them up and recover.

for the pate:

4 T olive oil

4 T butter

1 onion, finely chopped

4 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 t salt

1/2 t ground pepper

1/2 t dried tarragon or 2 T fresh chopped

1/4 t each grated nutmeg and ground cinnamon

1/3 C port

2 T cognac

3/4 lb. lean veal (for scallopini)

1 lb. chicken livers cleaned of all fat and sinue

about 1/2 lb. lean bacon

Heat oil and butter, add onion, garlic, salt, pepper, tarragon, nutmeg and cinnamon.  Fry gently without browning until the onion is soft.  Remove from heat and cool.  Put onion mixture, port, cognac, veal and livers into a food processor.  Puree to rough puree, do over process.  Cover and refrigerate for 12 hours.   Next day, preheat the oven to 350 F.  Line a loaf pan with bacon, pour pate into it and cover with more bacon.  Cover with foil and bake on a rack for 1 hour, maybe a bit more, until it has shrunk a little and looks as though it is floating in its own juices.  (My pate measured 190F when I took it out)  I also broiled the top uncovered for a minute to get the bacon nice and brown.  Pour out juices.  Cover with foil and weight top to compact it, I used canned goods.  Once it is cool, you will have a little more juice at the bottom to drain, remove weights then place in refrigerator until needed.  Unmold the pate and serve with the muscatels on the top.  This slices beautifully and is best served with brioche toast or french breads toasts.   We ate half this weekend and I sliced up the rest and double wrapped individual slices in plastic wrap, apparently it will last in the freezer for up to a month.