Easter, more bad weather trigger the first extravagant dinner party of the year

I've found that the state of the kitchen the morning after a dinner party and the bottle count in the recycle bin is generally a pretty good indication of the evening's success.

This morning I stumbled into a disaster of a kitchen, piled high with china, crystal, serving pieces and cooking pots. My bleary eyes checked out the bin and discovered that five people had consumed one bottle of champagne, four of white wine, two and a half of red and one entire bottle of port. Happy Easter. And thank God the bank holiday Monday could be spent in recovery.

When my guest count went from two to four at the last minute it was a great excuse to get out the crystal, lay the table properly and indulge in a little proper multi-course entertainment. But first, in order to work up an appetite and combat a few anticipated calories, a walk. Everyone met up at my place at 1 before heading up to Cliveden for a four-mile ramble around the grounds. The weather was still grey, but the rain had let up, so set a good pace through the formal gardens, down along the Thames and back through the woodlands.

Back home, stiff joints collapsed and received a libation of kir royale while I got together the nibbles. I started with an array we could pick at to sate our initial hunger: parma ham, anchovy stuffed olives, home-made roasted red pepper hummus and roasted tomato bruschetta. The luxury of the long weekend gave me the chance to try three new recipes, the first in this course. Stuffed eggs, maremma style, were like devilled eggs but stuffed with a paste made from the egg yolks and spicy sausage. The team verdict on this recipe: average, could make a decent first course on its own, but probably not something to bring into the standard rota of dinner party favourites.

This sounds like quite a lot, but everyone (being alumni of past Ferrara dining) had skipped lunch, and the proper first course was still an hour away.

That was another first-time production: peanut soup. This came with the great advantage of giving me an excuse to use my impressive soup tureen, which hasn't been removed from its lofty shelf for years. Unlike the eggs, this recipe was a universal hit. Quickly dubbed "sate in a bowl", it was indeed suffused with subtle Asian flavours. The richness of the peanut butter is blended with chicken stock and a variety of spices, then cut with lime juice, giving a pleasant balance. Hillary contributed one of the fine Chablis she had purchased on the Northwestern Girls' trip to Burgundy last October, particularly appropriate as other guests included Iain and Charlotte, at whose house we had stayed for that holiday.

The main course was yet another new dish, this time Cajun stuffed ham. That was a ham, cut in half, then filled with a stuffing of sweet potatoes, pears, raisins, fig jam and spices. The stuffed ham then received a coat of skewered pears and a glaze of maple syrup, mustard and spices before being slow-baked for hours. This was one of the ugliest things I've ever cooked, looking more like a creature from an upcoming Doctor Who episode (invasion of the hedgehog people) than anything likely to grace the pages of Martha Stewart Living. Definitely something to be carved and plated up behind the scenes. Because it certainly deserved to be on a plate. The recipe was an absolute triumph and will make another appearance on my table soon. I did sides of cornbread, roasted fennel and broccoli, not realising in advance that the stuffing would actually form its own side dish. While most everyone cleared their plates, I think the bread and the second vegetable were unnecessary; just the fennel would have been perfect.

Next, bring out the lamb cake. No, not real lamb. A traditional cake (this year, lemon poppyseed) baked in a mould, passed down from my great Aunt, shaped like the recumbent pascal lamb. The cake was delicious, but I have yet to master the skill of getting the damned thing out of that mould in two neat pieces that stick together smoothly. Thankfully the lemon butter cream icing is thick enough to serve as pastry mortar, sticking together the bits that have fallen off and covering the holes. Slices from the middle, served with a daub of lemon sorbet, were good enough to have been worth all the effort.

And then, because we really needed something to go with that bottle of port Guy had shown up with ... the cheese course. Stilton, brie, pecorino, cheddar and mild goat's cheese had been coming slowly up to room temperature all day atop the marble cheese board I hauled back from my visit to the quarries at Carrara.

All this, and great conversation too. I do love the holidays. True to form, the sun finally came out at about 3:30 this afternoon and it's due to be lovely for the rest of the week. So whilst I didn't have much great weather for the long weekend, I shall be looking at blue skies from my desk all week.

C'est la vie. Had the weather been better, I might have just thrown some chicken on the BBQ. It just wouldn't have been the same...