We threw a summer banquet last night! We had about 20 people. It was a whole lot of fun to put together. (view the menu, or the slideshow)

Here’s how it all went down…

Picking up food at Haymarket…

Pot o’ oil for pasteis de bacalhau.

Appetizers on the plate.

the appetizers…

the roast, and potatoes fried in duck fat

grilled mussels

lots of dirty things

Lessons learned:

• You always need a lot less of everything when you’ve got many courses.
• Especially cheese.
• Always use dripless candles. Never use drippy candles that aren’t white.
• A three or four hour meal is great. But at around six hours, people want to take a nap. And maybe it’s the sugar in the coffee, or the prospect of going home to bed, but somehow by hour seven everyone tends to wake back up again.