Pancake Day

I have just had lots of laughter and fun over a stack of delicious pancakes at my friends home. Lemon and sugar is the best way to serve a pancake in my book.

Last year I gave up clothes shopping for lent. This year I am giving up nothing at all. Far too hard given the elephant situation. There is a time for discipline and a time for enjoying grace.

And now is a time where treats are very much allowed.

Lovely Lunch

So a week ago all I could eat was toast and ice cubes. I could hardly hold a conversation let alone leave the house. Which made a simple day today SO nice.

My friend Lynds drove down to see me. Her parents took care of her two little girls so she could come, which I was so grateful for. She arrived with homemade soup for the freezer and an enormous homemade cake with chocolate buttons all over it. Her inner domestic goddess that has been hiding out all these years clearly emerged.

We head to Pizza Express for lunch. Nothing fancy. But just SO nice to sit and talk and be out. We talk about loads of stuff. How I am. About how I need to let people help me. Community. Friends.

Then she holds my hand. And asks me to be her little girl's godmother. The tears start rolling now for both of us. But what about... and I may not... and we don't know... She says she knows. She just knows. But would have asked me if there was no elephant and it wasn't going to stop her asking because of it.

We cry a little more. I share my heart. And then say I would love to.

Pizza Express is full of kids and noise because it is half term. The waiters must think we are nuts we all this crying and hand holding. But it was special.

We head back for a cuppa and a big piece of cake and she has to leave to drive 3 hours to get back to her girls.

It's amazing how a simple chicken salad and bottle of mineral water with an old friend can become the biggest luxury. And also how the act of asking an old friend to have a special role in your child's life becomes such an emotionally loaded thing when there is an elephant in the room. But it feels like we are in it together. That we are not going to let the elephant trample and get it's trunk in the way of stuff because of what ifs.

I will give little Sophie the best I can as her godmother for as long as I can. And I guess that is all anyone can do. Elephant or not.

Birthday Fun for Debra

Just back from a lovely evening celebrating Debra's birthday. Misbah cooked a fantastic meal. Again. Dahl curry and rice and salad was delicious.

I made the Nigella damp lemon and almond cake as a birthday cake pudding, and it came out rather well even if I do say so myself.

Debra got some lovely smelly White Company toiletries and a make up book. She is the queen of make up. And a fab friend too.

All round a really nice evening with two great friends.

I made a slight hitch with the time we were meant to be meeting so for the second time today caused all sorts of alarm bells with my very unlike Jo lateness... sorry girls, and Sal this morning. I will try better at getting up on time and arriving when I need to. Brain like mush sometimes these days....

Right decision

This flights lark is getting beyond boring now. BUT at last we made the right decision. i.e not to trek up to Luton today.

Our flight was cancelled and therefore we are entitled to a full refund. Hoorah. The easyjet website is being difficult at the moment (big surprise) so don't actually have one yet, but nearly there.

In other news, it was also the right decision to put nearly an entire bottle of brandy in my Christmas cake. I had a slice this afternoon and it tasted very moist and good indeed.

Sprout watch and Krispy Creme donuts

So. As I sit here supping yet another "sprout smoothie" I have a slight smugness that I have achieved my aim this week - to eat the entire large bowl of Brussel Sprouts.

On Wednesday I tried roasted sprouts.

Ingredients:

1 pumpkin - peeled and diced
1 red pepper - deseeded and sliced
Few chopped shallots
Few pumpkin seeds
Few walnuts
Several brussel sprouts - peeled, washed and halved
Large glug of Olive Oil
Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 190. Put all the vegetables and nuts a baking tray. Drizzle with the oil and season well. Place in oven and roast for approx. 45 minutes, turning about half way through.

Serve on green leaves with a large dollup of hummus.

I sound like a health freak. BUT I have also recently made another discovery. Krispy Creme donuts. For years I thought these had cream in them so had no interest. But it turns out they don't and boy do they taste good. I shared a couple of these with my friends earlier in the week. I hope the sprout effort have negated any badness from my sugar consumption.

Krispy Creme donuts V brussel sprouts? No contest.

December

Nice month. I'm not ignoring the elephant but I'm just too darn tired to go there with the emotions right now. So plan on just trying as best I can to enjoy the next few weeks. We have nice things planned. I'm going to masked ball on Saturday evening. Apparently the champagne is going to be free flowing. I'm looking forward to Christmas meals and very much to Christmas in Jerusalum. A time of friends, family, faith.

On that note. Time to go and get the fibre optic snowman village out of the loft. I will post a picture. It has to be seen to be believed. Woolworths tat at it's finest.

Economy Gastronomy: Paul Merrett

I was in the Victoria earlier in the week, and last night actually but anyway, I spoke to Paul about his cook book. I'm not sure he is a celebrity chef in the same sense as say Jamie Oliver or Gordon Ramsey YET, but he is on the telly and has a couple of cook books out. So that make him kind of a celebrity chef, right?

I told him how I had been trying out his book and writing reviews of the recipes on my blog. He is a really smiley man and was really nice about it. We had a little chat and he said thank you very much.

Nice man. Good pub. Great recipes so far.

He wanted me to try out the other book which is all about growing your own veg on an allotment. Not sure I am quite there yet, and don't think Farmville on Facebook counts, but if the farmers on the family want to take on that challenge then I will let him know.

Christmas Cake 2009

Right. Enough of all that doom and gloom of yesterday. Today is another day. I did mention that I baked my Christmas cake yesterday. This is all slightly nuts as proper Christmas cake rarely all gets eaten. I'm also now on a sugar strike. It's not that mine is not any I good I'm sure. It's just that it's not that popular.

I, however, always make one. To be honest the main reason is because I love to feed the cake. You see Delia says that to get the best rich cake, then you need to make it many weeks in advance and then feed it some brandy at regular intervals. I love this bit. It's like nourishing your cake to make it even richer and more Christmassy. So, if any one wants any around Christmas time - this cake is going to be laced with booze.

It take about 4 and half hours on a low temperature to cook. And preparation time starts at least 12 hours earlier when you soak all your fruit in brandy. I put mine in the oven last night before we went out and returned to the house full of those lovely spicy Christmassy smells. I even had that smell on waking this morning. A bit like when I do the festive ham and boil it for a couple of hours or so.

Anyway, the upshot of starting the cake is that I also need to start thinking about Christmas. I have had emails and phone calls from family asking what we want. The main problem being Jonny who is SO hard to buy for. As we are away this year it also feels like I need to start getting organised a little earlier. Christmas cards and wrapping paper have been bought. Is it worth sending any given the post issue? Whatever. Send them anyway.

I love Christmas. I'm ok with cold weather and getting dark early up until then. And I like the preparation and the project of it all. And this year I am going to be in Bethlehem. Now it doesn't get much more Christmassy than that.

Jamie's Recipease: Northcote Road

Last night we went to learn "How to cook the Perfect Steak." I've been to a couple of other places for cooking evenings. I'm quite big on experiences these days, so this was a great birthday present. And the fact it was steak even got Jonny interested.

This place was a lot more informal and relaxed than other places I have been for cooking lessons, and definitely had that Jamie feel about it. Small group - 10 max, and you can see from the picture you got your own workstation in this area that just forms the rear part of the store.

We started with a glass of wine whilst our host explained to us the different cuts, and showing us how to cook them. We get to try them to get the taste buds going. We learnt that, in her opinion, rib eye gives the best flavour, whilst fillet is the most tender but less strong flavour. So, from what I can remember, your top tips for the perfect steak are:

• Finger test. Thumb to forefinger - meaty part of hand texture = medium rare. Thumb to middle finger = medium. Thumb to ring finger = well done.
• Medium rare is best flavour as the blood and juices are what gives it the flavour
• Get your plan REALLY smokey hot
• Bring steak to room temperature before placing on hot pan (about half an hour)
• Add oil and seasoning generously whilst your steak is on the board. Never add oil to the pan.
• Once steak is in pan, prod it a lot but do not move it.
• Once steak starts to lift from pan - it is sealed and you can turn it
• Only need to turn a steak maximum of 4 times
• Once you see the blood juices coming through - you have a pretty good indication of medium rare
• Allow the steak to rest for approx 5 minutes before serving
• Cut against the grain of the steak

I had to upload this one as it is such a rare picture of Jonny cooking his own dinner. Bless.He looks so serious about it too:

After the steaks were cooked to perfection, we all sat down and ate them with salad and new potatoes and maybe a little more wine. As it is a small group, there is ease of conversation with others at the evening and lots of fun. I tell my fellow chefs that I will be writing a review of this place on my blog so what do they think of it? The overriding consensus is that it is a really fun evening and everyone would definitely go again. Jamie's development points (oh dear I still sound like a big 4 firm consultant...) were:

• Could have brought in more about how to cook the trimmings like potatoes etc
• Most people would have liked some guidance on the sauces you can make with your steak
• No goody bag. A little take home recipe card or something would have been a nice gesture.

After closing the four of us wander on for just one more drink. We end up in Be @ One where I haven't been for 8 years when I first moved to London. We may have ended up doing some good moves to cheesy music (like Baywatch theme tune!) whilst Jon Young played his leg air guitar. Oh dear. But was a very fun evening. Thanks Sis.

Roasted venison sausages and butternut squash with mash and buttered leek gravy

This was more of a "what on earth am I going to cook for dinner tonight?" moment. I looked in fridge, freezer and vegetable bowl and this is what I came up with. It tasted really good and would definitely make again. Think the squash would be optional.

As an aside this is sausage and mash that is good for you! My nutritionist told me that venison sausages are good for you as they have a higher proportion of meat in them, and the meat is less intensively reared, therefore better quality too. The squash has vitamin E that is great for the skin, the potatoes potassium and the leeks are high in anti nasty qualities.

Ingredients:

• 6 venison sausages
• 1 butternut squash, peeled and chopped
• 1 red onion, peeled and quartered
• Couple of cloves of garlic, peeled
• 3 white potatoes, peeled and chopped
• Knob of butter and splash of milk for mashing
• 3 leeks, washed and chopped
• Large knob of butter
• 1/2 pint of vegetable stock

Method:

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. In large roasting tray put in sausages, squash, onions and garlic. Drizzle with Olive oil. Put in oven for approx 40 minutes. Check occasionally to turn sausages and squash.

Meanwhile make mash. Boil potatoes for about 20 minutes, then mash with butter and milk. Set to one side.

For gravy. Soften leeks in melted butter for about 10 minutes. Add hot stock and bring to the boil and then simmer for about 5 minutes.

In warm bowls place mash, followed by sausages and roasted veg. Spoon over generous amount of leeky gravy. Season with freshly ground black pepper. Done.

Thai Green Curry

This one went down well. I have made Thai Green Curry so many times that I tend to make it up as I go along these days. If we have people for dinner then I make my own paste. Whilst impressive this can be dangerous as chilli's can be different heat and on one occasion I served an unintentionally VERY hot version for a couple of friends, who went bright red and were sweating lots and guzzled their own weight in water. Not my finest culinary moment.

Requests for recipe last night (and this is quick and easy and using shop bought paste!)

Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 1 white onion, finely sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
• Large dash of flavourless oil - I use ground nut oil
• 2 chicken breasts, skinned and diced. 2 chicken thighs, skinned and diced. I find the mixture of white and brown meat best
• 300g mushrooms, sliced OR bag of frozen char grilled vegetables
• 1 X 400g can coconut milk
• 400g hot vegetable or chicken stock
• Few crushed lime leaves (buy frozen from Waitrose)
• Couple of tablespoons chopped coriander (by frozen from Waitrose)
• 1 tablespoon Thai Fish Sauce
• 1 tablespoon Thai green curry paste (as much or as little as you like, depending how hot you want your curry)
• Pinch of ground ginger, cumin, coriander powder

Method:

Soften onions and garlic over medium heat in oil for about 5 minutes. Add the chicken, and more oil if needed, and stir fry until brown and cooked through. Add mushrooms / vegetables. Stir fry quickly.

Add all the other ingredients. Bring to the boil and then turn down to simmer for about 20 minutes. Add more fresh coriander at the end if you like.

Done. Serve with lots of soft white rice and maybe a nice cool glass of Sauvignon Blanc.

Economy Gastronomy update - Braised Beef

So, we did chicken. Boy. Did we do chicken. Last weekend we moved onto Braised Beef.

I made the bedrock recipe - the Daube of beef (pg 79.) Really easy. You buy a LOT of beef - 2.5 kg. But, recipe straight forward. Again a slow cooking one so it goes in the oven for about 3 hours on a low setting to get the beef nice and tender. I served it the next day for Sunday lunch with the Greens and Colcannon mash when my sister and her hubby come to collect my niece. Resounding thumbs up on this one and I don't think my sister even likes mash.

Having learnt from the chicken overload experience - all the left overs go in the freezer. Just as well as Jonny was not at home to eat for a single evening since last Sunday. Now I know red meat is good for my red cell count but I really could not have eaten all that.

Today is the first day we have seen some more of it. We tumbledowned to the Pappardelle with slow cooked beef and mushrooms (pg 81.) Had every in that was needed - the only extra fresh things you need are tomatoes, mushrooms and basil. This one is a lunchtime winner. You don't get that satisfied Sunday lunch feeling but it does the job. Especially if you want a quick meal:





We need to tumbledown the beef pasties and then I'm not sure whether it will be Lamb Mince or Salmon next. Watch this space.

Vegetarian Shepherds Pie Recipe

I made this one up. And it was a big hit. By request, here is what I did (I think):

Ingredients:

For mash:

1.5 kg potatoes, washed, peeled and chopped
1 savoy cabbage, washed and shredded
Large knob of butter
Splash of milk
Salt, Pepper, dash nutmeg

For Pie filling:

1 packet of Waitrose peeled and chopped butternut squash
1 packet vegi mince
2 large white onions
2 cloves garlic
1 packet chestnut mushrooms
Clump frozen herbs - parsley and coriander
1 and half pints hot vegan Bouillon stock
Salt and pepper to taste
Large glug of olive oil
Few extra knobs of butter

Method:

Preheat oven to 200C. Put squash on baking tray, drizzle with a little oil and seasoning and whack in the oven for about 45 minutes.

In meantime, make your mash. Boil up potatoes in lots of hot salty water for about 15-minutes. Meanwhile, lightly saute savoy cabbage in a little oil. Drain spuds, mash well with butter and milk, Lightly stir in cabbage and seasoning and dash of nutmug. Combine well and set to one side.

In large heavy based pan, gently fry onions and garlic in some olive oil for about 5-7 minutes over a medium heat. Add in the now roasted squash from the oven. Stir up. The squash will start to break up but this is fine. Add the hot stock and the vegi-mince. Bring to boil and then simmer for about 15 minutes. Add in the chopped chestnut mushrooms, the herbs and some freshly ground black pepper.

Put the filling mix in bottom on deep lasagne type dish. Cover with mash. Add a few extra knobs of butter to get a crispy top and run fork over the topping too, to get even more crispy bits.

Put entire pie in oven for approx 45 minutes, until the top is nice and golden and crispy.

Done. Enjoy. Seriously, last night the meat eaters were back for vegetarian extras - now that doesn't happen very often, does it?

Tide Tables, Richmond Bridge

I don't really like Mondays that much these days. I have a very different sinking Monday morning feeling to most other people, as my Monday morning sinking feeling is usually because I have a hospital visit of some description to deal with. The care is all very good, but it still turns me into some sort of nervous wreck just being there.

Yesterday morning started off as one of those days as I had to go to the hospital in the afternoon. However, it was a gorgeous Monday morning weather wise. After annoying lots of people in the local Post Office by holding up the queue with my 11 recorded delivery ebay parcels, it was a real treat when my lovely friend Gen suggested we wander down to Tide Tables. I have heard this is a nice place to hang out for a coffee but never been.

The cafe is tucked underneath the arches of Richmond Bridge and you probably wouldn't notice it unless you know it is there:

The menu is fully marketed towards the Richmond consumer. Not cheap, organic, vegan, wheat free, gluten free options all available. But really delicious. We got there about 12 and decided to have lunch. I was not disappointed at all. This is where I got to sit in the glorious sunshine and chit chat:

My afternoon may have been slightly pants, but this was a really lovely Monday morning. And my felafel's and salad may have ticked the healthy organic boxes but was bloomin delicious too. I will be back here quite a bit I think.

Twice Stuffed Roast Chicken

So... we are stuffed. There is some joke in there about twice stuffed chicken I'm sure? Jonny is getting worried that now every time I cook something he has to come up with some original comment that I can put on my blog. His words this time: "I liked it." Inspired.

From the girl in the kitchen my view was:

• Twice stuffed all very nice but the first stuffing - ham and sage leaves under the skin - bit of a faff and fiddly. Looked good though.


• Second stuffing - more traditional, bread, shallots, ham etc inside the bird really delicious. You soak it in chicken stock and butter before it goes in so get a really rich and tasty stuffing.


• Chicken is huge. I have tonnes of leftovers. Think I will be doing the chicken pie as an additional tumbledown too.


• Creamy corn side very easy and different way to serve sweetcorn


• Boiled potatoes not as disappointing as feared. With the richer than normal chicken (ham and lardy stuffing) the boiled potatoes are actually quite nice as may be rich food overload.

I'm glad we are at the pub quiz tomorrow night for beef and mash. Even then I think I may be a bit fed up of chicken by Thursday... so may make the pie and freeze it.

Economy Gastronomy - update 2

So I have the book, I have the will, and I have a hungry husband. So far this week I have tried two of the recipes.

First up was the slow cooked Moroccan lamb with herb cous cous (page 97 if you have the book.) The principal of the approach is to have made your bedrock recipe and then get a few more meals out of your big cut of meat. So, I kind of dived straight in here with one of the sweep up recipes, having not roasted my huge shoulder of lamb at the weekend (why would I - I was drinking sangria in Barcelona?) I used about 6 lamb chops and the bone that I had got from the butchers.

Summary - easy to cook and prepare - I whacked it all together and put it in the oven for the second half and went to a pilates class. Came back to house smelling amazing and hubby summed it up as "delicious" The slow cooking makes the lamb really tender and if you can't be bothered with the cous cous you could just serve this as a one pot dish as it has veg and potatoes in it. We had left overs which Jonny had reheated the next day. We like it so far.

The second recipe I have tried is the Spicy Pumpkin Chowder (page 107) I made this when I had my sister over for lunch on Friday. I made some changes. Substituted the kilo of pumpkin for butternut squash. In my book these two are interchangeable. I also hate cutting squash up so always by ready chopped frozen from Waitrose. So I changed the recipe slightly and roasted this first. A fellow cooking buddy has told me roasted veg tastes so much better in soup and I think she is right. Other than that, a great mix of flavours, all of which I had in the cupboard and took about 20 minutes in the hob and a quick whizz and it was good to go. Sarah's first words on tasting: "It's amazing!" Made half the recipe and had the rest heated up when I got back from Oxford last night in front of Strictly Come Dancing. Allegra would be proud of me. I thought this was great for those who try and not have too much dairy like myself but still get that creamy hearty soup.

So, so far, I like the recipes, but I have just dipped in and not tried the approach of bedrock recipe that sees you good for days. Today is the day, and this is the week. I bought a large (2.5kg) free range chicken on the way back from the station yesterday evening. I am about to attempt the Twice-stuffed Chicken with creamed corn and parsley potatoes. I've looked through the recipe and it looks like I have all that is needed. I am expecting complaints that the potatoes are boiled rather than roasted, and looks a lot more fiddly than my usual approach to Sunday roast chicken which is to stuff a pierced lemon and a few cloves of garlic and rosemary into it's cavity. Season well and stuff in the oven for an hour and a half. I think I am going to have to add Yorkshire's to soften the blow of lack of roasties but other than that I am going to commit to the recipe.

Apparently this way we will get a good roast and two tumbledown recipes. The Arroz con Pollo (chicken and rice) and Incidental Chicken Liver Pate will follow. Watch this space.

Trio Medley of desserts

I promised I would blog this. Thank you to my friends who cooked me a lovely dinner last night. The "trio medley" of desserts was made by the garnish - any top chef would be proud:

In case you are wondering that is homemade short bread, a discount pineapple from Sainsbury's and apparently the best chocolate biscuits you can buy in Waitrose. With the pineapple head for decoration. It did taste good to be fair.

I did some lovely things yesterday. Enjoyed my class followed by coffee and chat in the sunshine. Nice tea in the afternoon with couple of friends at Pembroke Lodge and had my dinner cooked by friends in the evening. Is it possible to do too many nice things in one day? I feel a bit weary today. Think I am over analysing maybe. Take the rough with the smooth Jo. But sleep needed.

Barcelona Eating and Drinking

So as often is the case, my experience of any city is all about the food. I knew I liked Tapas. But beyond that, not too sure what to expect other than possibly the odd paella. And I guess in a weekend it is hard to venture much beyond that with only a few meals to be had.

We ate an amazing paella on the first night. I guess thanks are due to my brother in law and Jonny for their "research" whilst the rest of us took a siesta...I'm sure that was more than one beer you had and we won't mention the hubbly bubble (oh I just did - oops.) I have never seen a paella dish so large - a six person dish was bought to the table. Great fresh seafood as you would hope from a port. I think my homework is to learn how to make a good paella.

Early evening on the Friday prior to this, my sister in law and I decide a sit down on the Ramblas is probably a good idea - we had been walking quite a bit due to navigation failure to find the metro stops. The boys decide to get a beer. I consider a coke but when in Spain, it seemed wrong not to have a small sangrea. This is what turned up:

So much for a small tipple. Jonny was not disappointed with his beer:

And a quick pit stop turned into a 2 hour people watching stop on Le Ramblas where I saw a naked man riding a bicycle and we also saw hens and stags and all sorts. I seem to remember a good football quiz too. Lots of laughter was had.

I struggled slightly on with the eating at midnight culture, but I guess the one advantage is that I was absolutely starving on the Saturday night and we destroyed a large amount on Tapas between us, which was very good indeed after the not very good sandwich we had eaten for lunch.

For those younger than us, or not with their wives maybe, there is an all night drinking and clubbing culture in this city that passed me by. I can see, however, why it is so popular for stag parties. I thought this may mean a culture weekend maybe somewhat marred by beery lads etc but I wouldn't let that put you off. This city has so much to offer beyond being stag do central.

We finish our visit with a long brunch down by the marina near our hotel. It is about 30 degrees, not a cloud in sight, and we relax and breath in the pleasure of being somewhere so warm and relaxed during mid October. One last beer for the boys at Placa de L'Angel and it is time to head for the airport. In short, good food and drink seems to flow endlessly in this place, and with the relaxed pace of life for a weekend, the two seem to go hand in hand. Gracies.

Economy Gastronomy - update

I have just purchased a signed copy of the book from The Victoria. Signed by Paul that is, not Allegra.

So, I guess my challenge now is to have a go at some of the recipes. Update to follow. Watch this space. I won't be doing a Julie and Julia and cooking the entire book!

Apple Crumble, Awful lot of food and Alpha

I had a very busy day yesterday. I have learnt that when I am having a very busy day and I have volunteered to bring a pudding, there is one very simple answer - apple crumble.

Ingredients:

4 large or 6 smallish bramley cooking apples
4 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Dash of nutmeg
75 grams butter / margarine / clover / whatever you have in the fridge
100 grams flour
75 grams brown sugar

Preheat oven to 180 degrees.

Peel and chop the apples (worst bit) and put them in a large pan with the 4 tablespoons brown sugar and cinnamon and nutmeg. Add a splash of hot water from the kettle. Bring to the boil and them simmer until the apples soften. This will take about 1o minutes. You don't want puree so be careful not to leave too long. This can be left to cool / done ahead and frozen at this stage.

Put the remaining ingredients in the magi mix. Whizz for a few seconds. Pour the apple mixture into bottom of dish, cover with crumble and bake for about 35 minutes.

Serve with shop bought custard, ice cream or whipped cream. The whipped cream was something of a disaster for me yesterday - see below.

This was the most straightforward bit of my cooking efforts yesterday. I was cooking for the new Alpha course that we are running at church. The menu was straightforward - chili and rice and all the trimmings and puddings. Other happy volunteers were bringing bowls of chili - and I just had to help throw it all together, for up to 100 people. Ahem. These are the things I learnt:

1. Popping to Sainsburys to get the trimmings when factoring up the volume to this many people does not just take about half an hour as I thought it would. And I kid you not my trolley was overflowing. I seriously looked like something out of supermarket sweep. Apologies to anyone else in Richmond Sainsburys yesterday who wanted to buy sour cream, guacamole or nachos. I cleared them out. And also put a very large dent in the salads, boil in the bag rice and orange juice. Oh and I also bought all the ready grated cheddar (yes about 20 bags of the stuff) I wasn't expecting this to draw quite as much attention to myself - lots of well meaning bods decided to comment on my huge quantities of food I was buying. The check out boy even said he wanted to come and help eat it all
2. Bowls. You need a LOT of bowls for this amount of food
3. Whipping cream is a completely unnecessary extra. It was my bright idea to offer a bowl of whipped cream with the puddings. So, in my 45 minute "rest slot" of the afternoon I thought I would take home the cream to whip it up. I had a lot to carry so put the cream in the same bag as the tablecloths that I had spent most of the previous afternoon helping to make, and in between my car and my front door - the cream burst in the bag, all over the tablecloths. So, bear in mind it is now approx 5.15pm and the event starts at 7.30pm. And I have just managed to burst cream all over Burgundy tablecloths. Genius.
4. A scrubbing brush and hairdryer can save the day. Tablecloths spread out over the floor, hot water and lots of scrubbing. Now they are slightly patchy and soaking wet. Drape them over the banisters and blast with the hairdryer. This done whilst getting changed and applying make-up in an attempt to try and look vaguely pretty later on, and not someone who had just done 12 rounds (yes 12) with the tablecloths and hairdryer after a couple of hours in Sainsburys.
5. Boil in the bag rice serves more that you think. I followed guidance - one bag per person - we had more rice than you can possibly imagine. I will never forget fishing bags and bags of the stuff out of huge pans to snip them and wondering where we going to put it all. We had an embarrassing amount left. Allegra would not have been happy (see previous post on Economy Gastronomy) I was not happy. I hate wasting food, I just found it so hard to judge the amount we would need.
6. Estimating the amount of food you need is really hard. Live and learn I say, better too much than too little.

This list is by no means a moan. Honestly. I loved being part of last night. The room looked great, and the the tablecloths did too. Everyone ate well, and we had loads of seconds and the selection of puddings was fantastic. The live music, the talk, the atmosphere (and hopefully the food!) made for lots of smiles and laughter. And the hope is that new people who came along would have had a really good evening, and felt really welcome like I did last year, and will want to come again and find out more. That is so long as they don't start demanding whipped cream with their pud. There are boundaries to my capacity to hold it all together. That one pushed me to the limit.