Today I hosted my Mentor Study Group.  How fun to get to do it on Valentine’s Day!

I love to entertain, but I’ve been gone and didn’t get a very early start on my preparation.  I was expecting 15, so needed to use both tables.  This is the dining room, with some vintage china my mom bought me a few years ago.

In the living room, we have a drop leaf table that’s only 14″ deep when the leaves are down.  When we need more table space, we move a couple of chairs, pull up the leaves and have a 60″ round table.  Works great!  Another set of vintage china.

I decided I wanted to make something called a Smörgåstårta–literal translation from the Swedish is sandwich cake.  It’s usually done with a whole loaf of bread, then sliced and served, but I decided to do individual ones.

I started by cutting rounds of bread–lot’s of rounds of bread, as these are triple decker sandwiches!  Then I spread some softened cream cheese on them.

That was followed by Swiss cheese.

More bread and cream cheese, very thinly spread.

Then there’s turkey.

Finally, the last piece of bread.  I used a yummy oat bread.

I made a mousse of shrimp, lemon and cream cheese and spread it on the sides and top.

Then I wrapped the whole thing with a thinly sliced cucumber and topped it with a cherry tomato and some sliced radishes.

I may have gotten carried away with slicing radishes, and I think Bob will be eating radishes with every meal for awhile!

Here are the first eight ready to go into the refrigerator.

All plated up.

I served grapes and an asparagus salad with them.

The ladies dug right in, which I always take as a compliment.  There’s my friend, Karen, helping serve.  Thank you, Karen!

I had three no shows.  Argh!  But, we just pulled off a couple of table settings and it all worked out.

We had a great meeting, then a little dessert.  Last night I baked a double batch of Chocolate Decadence in a sheet pan, then this morning I cut out hearts.

I borrowed these adorable heart shaped dishes and mugs from my sister.

A little raspberry puree and whipped cream along with the Chocolate Decadence was a perfect finish to a fun day.

I hope your Valentine’s Day was fun, too.