Well, I am very, very pleased to say that my very first dinner party in my very first house was a resounding success. I nearly killed myself trying to bring it all together in time but I did it and we had a truely lovely evening. We were supposed to be going to a carol service before dinner but unfortunately my sister’s train was delayed getting back from Exeter so we missed that but no matter, I’m just glad she was able to make it at all! We started the evening with drinks and a few light nibbles (I was going to make these all myself but sanity prevailed and I grabbed a few packs of party food from Tesco!)
I had a roaring fire and the whole house was as warm and welcoming as I could wish. This was my first opportunity to really show it off so I did the traditional and hid everything I usually have lying about in the spare room!
Then on to the main event, Dinner! We started with Buttered Mushrooms and crust bread. Again, I didn’t cook the bread myself because, again, sanity prevailed!
Then on to our main of Turkey Wellington. I may Wellington more things in the future because, despite being tricky overall, it wasn’t actually all that hard when you broke it down. And it certainly had the “wow” factor! I served this with brussel sprouts, batons of carrot and celeriac dauphinoise. Oh calamity! I dropped the dauphinoise on the floor! Upsidedown! In the pile of sweepings I’d just done! I fair turned the air blue! But, no matter, I still had half a celeriac! Thank goodness for huge root vegetables and my buying extra of almost everything “just in case”!
My sister, the obligatory vegetarian, had a main of Butternut Squash and Sage Pithivier, the recipe for which I shall post soon. She certainly seemed to like it but with ingredients of puff pastry, butternut, marscapone, sage and garlic it seemed a fair bet!
And for dessert the gorgeous, stunning and oh so simple Cranberry Fool!
All followed by a shared sliver of Christmas cake. We were all stuffed but I knew if we didn’t cut into it then I would just sit looking at it going, “oh, no, it’s too pretty to cut just for me!” So we bravely gobbled down a morsel each!
I had an absolutely lovely evening. It was worth all of the stress, panic and chaos. This is my first proper home, something I’ve always wanted and to have all of my family round and to be able to show off this home I have made myself and have somewhere that is so uniquely mine in the first place means an awful lot! Now that I’ve got the hang of this entertaining lark I’ll have to do it more often! So who’s coming to dinner?
Anna in the kitchen 