Serves: 5

For me, giving a dinner party is one of life's great pleasures. There's nothing like lingering at the table with friends after enjoying a luscious home-cooked meal. When I think of dinner parties at my home, I see candles nearly burned down to the end, lots of plates stacked in the sink, and my husband filling cordial glasses with port or limoncello.

There is something about giving a dinner party that jolts you out of your everyday routine and makes you focus on the evening ahead like a vacation, you plan it with excitement. What will you serve? How many people will you have?

When I'm planning a dinner, my husband and I spend days deciding on the menu and the people we'd like to invite. Sometimes we end up having another couple over, while other times it could be a group of twelve. Whatever the size of the group, we excitedly page through cookbooks, reciting recipes aloud, gathering ideas for a menu. In my house, I do the main course and side dishes while my husband reigns in the kitchen when it comes to dessert.

In this book, I've divided the dinners by size, moving from intimate groups of four to bustling ones of ten to twelve. Doing so should make it easier for you to plan your own dinner party. The smaller dinners are a bit more elaborate, while the larger ones offer big dishes that are easy to serve to a crowd. When I use the word elaborate I don't mean "time intensive." On the contrary, the whole point of this book is help you create a dinner party in a relaxed, organized fashion so that you can really enjoy spending time with your guests.

Along with each menu is a Menu Manager that will allow you to plan your time most efficiently. The Menu Manager guides each step of the meal and helps you to prepare some dishes ahead of time. With the direction of the Menu Manager, not only will you have time before your company arrives, but time with your guests during the dinner.

When putting together the menus for this book, I made a list of all the dishes that have become "classics" in our household, like roasted asparagus with poached eggs, finished with a dusting of freshly grated Parmesan. Another is a tangy Andalusian gazpacho that will mystify your friends with its creamy texture a few stale pieces of Italian bread give it body. I've included a recipe for a succulent herb-marinated pork shoulder that quickly became a standard at my house I must have cooked it at least six times over last winter and spring. I've also included my husband's blueberry pie, which is easy to assemble and always has purple-lipped dinner guests begging for more.

Whatever its size, a dinner party is about sharing food and enjoying each other's company. Friends usually like to lend a hand at these events, whether clearing the table, tossing a salad, or serving dessert. The best kind of dinner party has a relaxed, communal air where everyone is involved, even if it's just sitting and chatting with each other.

A friend once told me that if the hosts of a party are having fun, then everyone else will have fun, too. This comment certainly applies to dinner parties. You can have the best food, the best wine, and a beautiful setting, but if you're stressed and miserable, your guests will feel it. So first and foremost, have a wonderful time, and all the rest will follow.

From Dinner Parties. Text copyright © 2004 by Jessica Strand. Photographs copyright © 2004 by Victoria Pearson. All rights reserved. First published by Chronicle Books LLC, San Francisco, California.