Notes from a 5-course dinner

I recently cooked my first 5-course dinner. Here are some notes before I forget them. 

Appetizer. This was my first time using puff pastry. It was tasty but the onions and gorgonzola were a bit strong/pungent. I would try a pastry puff again, but not this one.

Soup. The recipe was curried pumpkin. I couldn't really discern the curry powder flavor, but I thought the soup was quite good. Better than I expected.

Salad. This was fantastic. The homemade dressing made a ton of difference and I would absolutely make this again. The only thing was that it thickened a bit in the fridge overnight. The recipe calls for chilling at least two hours, overnight is best. But next time I should try and set it out a few hours in advance so it wouldn't be as thick. The homemade croutons were also amazing. I feel like they tasted better when I made them the night before.

Pasta. The only real mistake happened here. The dinner was Sunday night. I made as much as I could Saturday night. On Saturday the squash pasta sauce was perfect. On Sunday it was way too thick. I thought heating it in the pan would thin it out, but it really didn't. I should have saved some of the pasta water or added something to thin it out. Instead it was a bit clumpy and stuck to the pasta in spots, instead of being a sauce that covered it completely.

I combined two recipes and I think the concept and the recipes were both good, just a slight error in execution.

Cookie. We both love skillet cookies, but I had no idea how this would turn out. The answer was perfectly. It was cooked all the way through just how you want it. A little crispy on top, gooey in the middle. Perfect serving size. Definitely making this again.