In the spirit of a milestone birthday party, the big 5th, half a decade, I’ve prepared some virtual food. As they say, get stuck in, please enjoy, bon appetito, smakelijk, velbekomme, kali oreksi, selamat makan, douzo meshiagare etc.
CANAPES
On arrival pub patrons will be offered plates of beautiful homemade canapés (or ‘orsesdoovers). Nibble on small pancakes topped with smoked salmon, sour cream and caviar, melba toast with chicken liver pate, smoked trout and pickled water melon rind or baba ganoush. Gluten free homemade crisp bread is there too – all delicious.
Then there is the cheese board to peruse: French brie, Australian cheddar, Milawa blue and goats cheese and some more, the names of which I can’t spell or remember how to pronounce.
THE COLD BUFFET
With Trotter’s Ale, mystery pink drink, wine or whatever in hand move on to the cold buffet.
Help yourself to slices of double smoked ham right off the whole leg, fresh tiger prawns, Sydney Rock or Coffin Bay oysters freshly shucked, cold roasted chicken drumsticks, rare roasted whole scotch fillet and any of the many enticing salads (potato, coleslaw, mixed lettuce, homegrown tomatoes/cucumber/fetta/olive or tabouleh). For the vegetarians I’ve gone to a lot of trouble and made devilled eggs and a spicy lentil patty with so little meat in it you’ll hardly notice.
THE HOT BUFFET
Then waddle over to the hibachi in the new slightly enclosed verandah for smokers. The coals are ready for cooking. COOK YOUR OWN HOT FOOD. Just select any or all of the prepared meats on a stick. There is my fabulous malay satay (lamb), original beef kebab, chicken satay and more garlic prawns and scallops on sticks. For the vegetarians – sorry there is nothing so you are stuck with baba ganoush, devilled eggs and salad and cake.
DESSERT
There is no dessert. (I only do crepes but I used all the mixture up to make the little pancakes for the canapés.)
But there is a BIRTHDAY CAKE. In keeping with the pub theme this is one laced with brandy and sherry. It’s full of dried fruit, wholemeal wheat, brown sugar, butter, free range eggs, crushed homegrown almonds and another dash or two of brandy and cream sherry.. Yes, it is actually a rich fruit cake. I could have done my carrot sponge cake with strawberries on top but there are no strawberries and the fruit cake is easier to prepare ahead of time and I needed that time to get to the fishmonger for the oysters and seafood which are clearly of greater importance.
So here’s happy birthday to you – to be hummed with gusto and toasted with a glass of sparkling shiraz durif from a vineyard down the road from me (it’s bloody good).
PS: there is an excellent jug or two of percolated real coffee on the table near the cheese. Some drinking cups too if you must. But I’ll probably open another bottle of sparkling somethingorother ..….. hic.
helvityni said:
Nice stuff Viv, like you I’m not fussed about deserts, and even the crepes I rather have on their own for brekkie…
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Voice said:
For some reason this reminds me of student parties when I used to hang out beside the buffet most of the evening stuffing my face. Those were the days – never put on an ounce and people used to make sure I had enough food on my plate, never suspecting they were the umpteenth person to have done so.
However the food is of far higher standard. So I was definitely the quiet one next to the table.
P.S. The vegetarian patty idea is brilliant. For the purists, I find vegetarian lasagna can be enjoyed by all.
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vivienne29 said:
I gather you noted my little joke about the lentil patty. No one else mentioned it.
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Therese Trouserzoff said:
Viv, I cooked a black lentil, sweet potato and brown rice thick soup this evening. Grated a little lemon rind and juice into some greek yoghurt and dolloped it on top. It was delicious. Maybe a little too sweet, but delicious none-the-less. Amazing – actually edible vegetarian food !
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vivienne29 said:
Sounds great. Might I suggest if you ever feel the need for some extra flavour, the Massel powder stocks are excellent. All vegetarian even though one is called chicken and another beef (as well as veg). Better than all the other stocks. I’ve been using them for that bit of oomph for about 10 years.
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algernon1 said:
Fancy being able to buy a Trotters in 1882. I do like the hot buffet. Thanks for the scrumptious feed vivienne
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sandshoe said:
What an incredible feast. What a great write-up. Every cook book ought to have a write-up of how to do the party and ours does. Viv, that’s genius.
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vivienne29 said:
Thank you so much Shoe. You are very kind and observant. I’ve thrown quite a few big parties in my time. Pity more didn’t turn up to this one.
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sandshoe said:
There is the line out of Field of Dreams …if you have seen it, Viv …referring to a baseball field; Build it and he/they will come. It popped into my head. I wasn’t aware I don’t think it was our 5th birthday. It seems magical. We are building it and if the tone rises through creating such magic as you have in this contribution, they will come. Thank you yourself Vivienne for your kindness,
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Big M said:
Great party, just woke up in the Gents, wearing my undies as a balaclava, at least, I think it was great.
Happy WordPress Birthday, Viv!
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vivienne29 said:
Now that I’ve had time to recover from my extension food preparations I’ve whipped up an excellent vegetarian lasagne made with gluten free pasta. It’s going cold so you need to use the microwave to reheat it.
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vivienne29 said:
Extension ! Extensive. But I could do with an extension table.
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Hung One On said:
That sounds fantastic Viv sign me up for one of everything
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vivienne29 said:
I hope they all turn up otherwise you will have a very big doggy bag. I’ll put some takeaway containers near the coffee. 🙂 (It is rather early of course and a working day for most.)
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Hung One On said:
Is that Monet?
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vivienne29 said:
It is Manet. Edouard Manet. Lot of similarities except that Monet didn’t paint people all that much. The boss and Warrigal came up with the picture/painting which suited the occasion perfectly.
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vivienne29 said:
So appropriate because the painting is called The Bar at the Folies Bergere (1882).
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Hung One On said:
Yeah, amazing Viv, it looked like Monet but I thought he generally painted scenes. Thanks for the info. I will look him up on Wiki.
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Therese Trouserzoff said:
For a minute there, Hung I thought you said that Monet only painted scones. Fair enough, Cezanne had the fruit bowl pretty well sewn up.
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Hung One On said:
I was just trying to sound smart Boss, I knew it wouldn’t work, but hey what a menu.
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sandshoe said:
It’s Flo who painted scones yellow and called them Pumpkin, Viv. They got confused. 😉
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Hung One On said:
Yes, I keep forgetting, I rarely work Mondays, its great. I did work this weekend as extras but I only work mid week at the moment.
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