Happy 1st Anniversary to me! It’s been 2 weeks since my last post, but celebrations have kept me from writing…okay, a few other things like a major building project (The Parents arrive on the 28th and the cottage is yet finished) and the garden was getting lost in the grass and as always, good intentions lost to needs be. The Blog Party was stunning if I have to say so myself and everyone said they enjoyed themselves and loved the food so it’s time to share.

I had The Party on Easter Sunday and had originally planned to have it outside on the terrace, but at 8C, pouring rain and several questioning phone calls from worried guests (Is there a doctor nearby to help with frost bite injuries?), I reluctantly decided to move the party indoors. Being of English stock (along with mad dogs and other Englishmen) I could certainly have eaten on the terrace, but eating alone is less fun so we moved all the furniture out and all the shivering guests in. And see, the table doesn’t look too bad now does it?

We were 16 lovely people – I had originally promised Joerg that I would invite only 10, but I can’t count proper like and find that even 16 is just far too few. I’ll just have to have a couple more parties to have more friends share my joy. The past year has just flown by and I wanted to write so much more, but am glad that I actually got round to writing as much as I did. In a perfect world one would have staff and then I could spend all my time writing and cooking, but I’d probably be double my already double size, so the Fat Gods might just be right.

Talking about food, this is the menu of My day:

Chicken liver pate on melba toast for nibbles

Foie Gras stuffed apples with Lambs lettuce salad

Rabbit pie with roasted tomatoes
Lamb a la Crystal
Potato dumplings fried in duck fat
Roasted carrots with pecan nuts
Peas

Cheese cake (as in savory)

Tarte St.-Honoré

I decided to make rabbit and lamb with it being Easter Sunday and all. So we ate the Easter Bunny and the Easter Lamb and no, I’m not related to Hannibal (not as far as I know…). I made individual Rabbit pies and allowed most people to eat them before mentioning to them what they were. Come on, you’ve got to be a little adventurous, non? We had the (very lovely) 14 year old Kayleigh (will have to check on the spelling) join us for lunch and she (who is normally vegetarian) said it was the first time she’d eaten bunny and she loved it. See, you can do it if you really want to!

Rachel (you met her in the http://www.acookonthefunnyside.com/Hasselback-potatoes-or-huckleback-pot... post) told me that the average woman eats about 13 lipsticks in her lifetime and posed the question as to why we simply don’t sprinkle them with salt and pepper and eat them in one go rather than over time. I have looked at my lipsticks differently since then, but still prefer rabbit and lamb – salt and pepper just taste so much better on them.

Dessert could have been a disaster but MacGyver in the kitchen was able to save it at the last minute. I chose to make a St. Honore Tart for dessert which needs to be made and assembled and eaten so I made as much as I could the day before and Sunday morning a look at the 2kg of (very expensive) strawberries revealed a mass of green moldy mush. Just incase you are not familiar with strawberries, this is not ideal. Fortunately, I have a freezer the size of a mini Cooper and was able to rummage out some blueberries and raspberries and thereby save my dessert, much to the relief of my guests.

I am proud to say that one of the guests weighed herself the next day and had gained 2.8pounds – now that’s what I call a successful lunch! One did spend an awful lot of time in the kitchen, but I loved it and seeing as (almost) everything worked out well, it was worth it. The bad weather had some advantages and one of them was that I could put all the dishes on the back terrace, close the door, pull the winter curtains and leave them there for a couple of days…

And so over the next couple of days you will have a choice of two things:
a) Come over here and do the dishes
b) Read the recipes of all the dishes.

(Call this number at $22 per minute with your answer.) Oh yes, a big THANK YOU FOR STICKING WITH ME! My blog and I appreciate your visits and hope you keep coming back for lots more of my ranting and recipes.