Sadly the middle attempt looked a little better than the first and third, but hopefully our guests will be so blotto by dessert it won’t matter all that much.

Recipe here, and the improvements I made last time were definitely worth repeating – ie make a vanilla mascarpone and rather than glazing the tarte with apricot jam, slightly reduce the spicy red wine used to poach the pears, and paint that on with a pastry brush.

It’s one of the last weekends before term begins, so we are having a little soirée and I’ve gone completely over the top with the food.

• Peach Kir royale on arrival
• Canapés – roasted tomato tartlets and fig and goats cheese mini-croissants (*)
• Chicken liver mousse topped with parsley jelly with home made bread
• Pulled pork with mustard mash and green veg (*)
• Pear and chocolate tarte
• Coffee with home-made after dinner mints, earl grey truffles

In a sign of how badly behind with my reading I am, the starred recipes are inspired by September Olive magazine. That’s September, 2010.

The earl grey truffles are recovered from the hateful ganache made to top the awful cake I made last weekend that no-body apart from me would eat. Half of it went into work with P and has been eaten by his colleagues, and I ate the other half myself.

Cooking for dinner parties is so much more fun a) without a camera crew and b) when you can spread it out over several days.