Crazy Crap Item #44: The part where the Dalys brush off their best silver

Dear friends, Eamon and I hosted ... a dinner party. I feel so very grown-up just saying it. We've hosted dinner parties in the past, but it always transports me back to the early '60s, when highballs ruled the wood-panelled den and rumaki danced trippingly on the tongue.

Dinner parties at the Dalys are quite the event, since my husband, as is well known, has a flair for the dramatic. I suggested we serve lasagne. I was scorned. Quail it would be. Quail cooked on small cans of pineapple juice, akin to miniature beer can chickens. Accompanied with a homemade pineapple-infused sauce and tri-color couscous. And of course, as a flourish, a towering and impressive pineapple-infused centerpiece. At least I set the table.

And where, you might ask, are the pictures of the dessert I so lovingly crafted from a kit purchased at William Sonoma -- the molten chocolate peppermint cake, artfully garnished with vanilla ice cream, crushed peppermint candy, chocolate wafers and fresh mint leaves??? Oddly, that didn't make into the camera phone. Funny that.