Our dinner party
Here's how it went:
drinks and hors d'oeuvres: I made way too many crudites, but everything else was pretty much devoured. The crab cakes and prosciutto/fontina/puff pastry pinwheels were the faves.
mushroom bisque a big hit
cod on garlic potatoes: the potatoes were a fail; I worried that they wouldn't be done in time and pre-baked them, so they were a little tough by serving time, but the cod was great
chicken breasts porcini: big hit; the chicken was very moist, which can be a problem be breasts pounded thin. The sauce was luscious.
shrimp a la greque: terrific--it's a go-to recipe from Craig Claiborne
strip roast: big fail. I wanted to try the Adele Davis method of roasting meat at the temperature you want to achieve, in this case 125. Despite the fact that I browned it first, the low heat did not melt the fat the way it should have, and it actually looked a little gross. The taste was very good, but it was so unappealing visually that not much got eaten. Roast beef sandwiches, anyone?
vegetables: green beans perfect, broccoli OK, roasted root vegetables a surprise hit. I thought they were a little soggy, but my guests ate them all up. I did get to taste celery root, which I'd never had before and which was the whole point of the dish for me. Creamed spinach did not go over, mostly because nobody likes spinach. It was very good but largely uneaten.
salad was OK
lemon sorbet was Haagen Dasz
desserts: Paris-Brest a big hit but hard to slice; triple chocolate mousse cake was good but I've made it better (I rushed the top, white chocolate layer)
Savoy truffles: always a winner
Now I have about four days of dishwashing ahead of me!
= new reply since forum marked as read
I would have been a nervous wreck.
it all sounds delicious to me! Too bad about the strip roast. And I love creamed spinach! Put that bowl in front of me please.
Thanks for the update! 
