Friends for dinner!

Last night we had a couple over for dinner. I love entertaining this time of year, getting the table set and planning the menus. This was the tablesetting for last night, you can see the bright eyes of my little helper sitting on the chair in the corner, she has to monitor everything I do.

 I like using just the basic white and offsetting it with a fun salad plate and charger.

 This is my silver and gold setting I guess, I have a couple more coming up that will be more red and green, but I thought this was a little more sophisticated for last night.

 We pack away all of our regular glasses at this time of year, I have a ton of special holiday glasses that I like to use.

 

I found the glittery decals for the mirror which say, Believe, Imagine, Wish at Home Goods after Christmas last year. I love how festive they make the buffet.

The menu turned out wonderfully. We started with some nice cheeses and crackers with some wine of course, and then I made a salad with baby arugula, craisins, fresh sliced pear, candied pecans and a champagne vinaigrette. The main course was Aunt Polly's Lamb Shank and Creamy mashed potatoes (this is now my go to mashed potatoes recipe, I can't wait to make them for sister J, she LOVES mashed potatoes!) and steamed green beans. The lamb turned out beautifully, it was so delicious and flavorful, we all just loved it! This is a menu I would definitely make again, the only change I would make is to make these green beans instead of just plain old regular steamed green beans.

I am traveling for work next week, but we have two dinners scheduled the following week, so I am looking forward to doing a new table setting with some pieces I recently purchased!