Woke around 0800...listened to R4 in bed for a bit before rising to make porridge. Worked at the computer for most of the morning. Aki had a zoom call with Japan...she has some work assisting liaison between Japanese hotel developer and Camden builders...should be interesting! She made chicken noodle soup for lunch, then started putting together the nut roast ingredients for tonight's dinner party. I popped out to the local shops to buy some odds and ends...bought a Big Issue from the smiley girl who sits outside our Tesco Metro. I prepared the stuffed potato dumpling starter, the roast potatoes, the buttered toast bread sauce, and the rice pudding. Took ages to blanche and peel the almonds, then roughly chop 'em up...I had cramp in my left hand after 15 minutes! Katrina and Tony turned up around 1800 as I was putting the potatoes in the oven. They had been to see "Othello" at the National this afternoon...I guess Tony was doing the audio describing. We opened some sparkling wine, and I got back to cooking the starter...it went down very well...the dumplings were served with fried mushrooms, sour cream, and cranberry sauce. Aki's splendid nut roast followed, the piece de resistance being the fact that it is covered in savoy cabbage leaves. We ate it with parsnip mash, roast parsnip and peppers, bread sauce, gravy, and crispy roast potatoes. Yum! Katrina had made Tony an almond and orange cake to mark his birthday today, and we stuck some candles on it and sang happy birthday. We then got stuck into a couple of the cheeses Katrina had bought us, with biscuits, followed by decaff coffees and Aki's amaretti biscuits. What a feast!
No comments:
Post a Comment