Party: thanks everyone...

[friend_of_tofu]

...for being lovely guests. I had a good time and I hope you all did too. It was fun, AND I managed to persuade my mum to come round and be sociable for a bit, which is good. Too many highlights to list, but I particularly have to give credit to the wonderful darkfloweruk, who read one of her new short stories just for us! For those who haven't come across her

Comments

[xanna]

I stuffed an entire marrow with peppers and breadcrumbs and more marrow (j called it a marrow transplant). It was for the good. Apart from that, we made our famous call to Pizza Hut Delivery.

Sounds like a nice party. Sorry I can't be everywhere at once!

[xanna]

P.S. the photograph of that cake is amazing. Is this what you get for having a hazyjane around?

[friend_of_tofu]

Nah, the photo cake from the blog's owner - mine was a bit less posh than that! It was only a single layer of cake, although it did have decorative blackberries on top, which I liked. Although it's possible hazyjayne may also have a photo of ours. It is a particularly impressive cake photo, isn't it? Very professional-looking.

[friend_of_tofu]

No need to apologise :-) There will be more parties, and I ope you'll be able to make some of those.

I like the sound of your stuffed marrow; marrow tends towards the bland, so filling it with exciting stuff is good.

[catsgomiaow]

I made spelt rolls and mushroom stew (another Guardian recipe that's been knocking around for a bit) and it was really, really, REALLY good (I suspect it ended up a lot more "saucy" than Nigel's but that was fine - for more dipping the bread into! :)) Although, I did alter the stew recipe a bit and put a tiny bit of cream in there as well, as there was some about to go off in the fridge, and I used lemon zest instead of orange, and I added dill at the end as well as parsley bcs I thought it'd go nicely with the fennel (it did!) And my spelt rolls turned out a lot lighter than those in the picture - they were awesome though. It totally felt like something that Bilbo Baggins would have cooked in Bag End - MUSHROOM STEW!

Hobbit fuds

[friend_of_tofu]

That's awesome. I love how Nige took the cream out and you put it right back in again! It looks very tasty (even tho it's mushrooms, of which *pteh* *pwwwh*) and those spelt rolls look amazing.

It is the most totally Guardian recipe tho, innit?

I have tried almost every room in the house for this and find the work surface at the side of the Aga, or the shelf above the radiator in the kitchen gets the quickest results

Shades of the 'Monkeydust' yuppies!

Re: Hobbit fuds

[catsgomiaow]

Haha I KNOW RIGHT - I read that bit about the Aga and just thought... oh FFS, the Guardian ;)

Re: Hobbit fuds

[friend_of_tofu]

At least he considered the possibility that there might be some poor families out there without an Aga, and included the bit about the radiator so the poorer classes could cook too. See? No more class war!

[palmer1984]

So sorry I didn't make it - did Alex get my text?

[friend_of_tofu]

Yes. Don't worry, stuff comes up, I know that :-) We can do more socialising soon.