Successful dinner party

This evening I hosted my first official sit-down dinner party in my new apartment. The menu:

Starters: crostini with smoked salmon, creme fraiche and capers; crostini with tapenade; blanched almonds fried in butter with rosemary and glazed with Worstershire/honey. All served with various cocktails.
Salad: golden oak lettuce with cucumbers, blood orange segments and toasted hazelnuts dressed with a blood orange vinaigrette and garnished with pecorino romano.
Main course: Bisara with couscous and a side of summer squash sauteed with Boccalone guanciale.
Dessert: blood orange and rosemary sorbet and rosemary shortbread, accompanied by homebrew mead.

The guests said they all enjoyed the food and I don’t think they were saying it just to be polite as I was pretty pleased myself (which is odd as I’m normally very critical of my work). Bisara was the perfect choice for the cold and rainy day. The cleanup is going to take a little while (many dishes to wash) but it’s totally worth it. We had a great time, laughing a great deal.

Bonus of the evening: there’s Bisara left over; sorbet and shortbread as well. I’m going to be eating well next week.