Autumnal Equinox Dinner

So, Cameron has been telling me about his family's solstice dinner for a while. As they had tamales and posole for Christmas, they would have a traditional Christmas meal (ham, potatoes, etc.) on the solstice so they could have the best of both worlds and meals. The dinner was also used as a time to teach etiquette.

Cameron and I thought it would be fun to do this, but we figure for the next couple of years we will be at someone else's house during that time and it would be a little difficult, so we decided to do an Autumnal Equinox dinner instead. This year we held it a day early and had the dinner on September 21 (instead of the 22nd...which is this year's equinox date) because the 21st is my little sister's birthday. So we combined the equinox dinner with her birthday dinner and had a ball.

I also had been wanting to try to make and serve a 7 course meal to a small group, so I used this as the opportunity to do so. I got much of what I did from a meal that my cousin Rhett and his wife Missy put on for me and my friends when I lived with them in Hershey, PA. The next 7 or so posts will be the different foods/courses that we had. This post is just explaining it all, giving the menu, and showing the set up.

First off, here's the menu:

Course 1: Chilled Raspberry Soup

Course 2: Baguette with Peach Brie

Course 3: Autumn Salad with Maple-Cider Vinaigrette

Course 4: Cream of Carrot-Cheddar Soup with Bread Bowls

Course 5: Lemon-Lime Sorbet

Course 6: Tuscan Style Pork Ribs with Balsamic Glaze, served with a side of boiled Red Potatoes

Course 7: Double Decker Pumpkin Pie

Beverage: Autumn Harvest Punch

Now here's the set up:

Luckily, all the stuff I have been given over the years matched! I ended up buying new dishes for this with birthday money, but I wanted nice new dishes anyway. The baby indian corn and the gourds I got at Albertsons.
I've had these glasses for a few years. I bought them at the Dollar Tree for a buck each when I did a 5 course meal for some friends for a date. I think they're so pretty.

Because Nina was the guest of honor (for her birthday) and Heber eats with his left hand, I wanted people to sit in specific spots to make everything flow better. I thought of doing name cards, but then I switched ideas. I got the gourd idea from watching the show Reba. Cameron thought it was a little funny, but I think they added an autumny touch and the family all really liked them. To put their initial on I just used poster paint pens and permanent markers.