" If the dining-room tables hadn't been so stable, they would have sagged from the weight of the food. There were antipasti platters, a butternut-squash strata with sage, and a casserole dish of baked ziti. On the sweet side there were pear tartlets, an apple cake, fresh figs with mascarpone and honey. At the end waited a towering croquembouche---a pyramid of cream-filled choux puffs encased in a glamorous tangle of spun sugar. "

― Hillary Manton Lodge , Together at the Table (Two Blue Doors #3)