Planning ahead for #2 by #2

I'm planning to make the starter--the country soup--with vegetable broth so the Vegetarian can share the meal as well. Will I actually make the broth? Time will tell. I have this delicious soup base in a tidy packet that I have been using of late....Quelle horreur!

I'm also planning to substitute beef for veal. I just can't bring myself to cook veal. However, my rational is that we found French beef to be surprisingly tough; their veal--the one time I ate it--was much more like what we eat as beef.

I've invited our next-door-neighbors to join us, and I was intending to invite another couple as well, but I haven't yet because now I'm worried that the recipe is for six, and we are five without any guests. It's easy enough to stretch the recipe for 8 or 10 people, but I'm already nervous about the creme caramel. And how far astray from the recipe--fudge the broth, change the meat, increase the number of servings--can one go before the whole point of the lesson has been lost?

And that doesn't even take into account the number of seats at the table problem.