Entertaining - 30 Sucks Party

I had all sorts of good intentions of cooking something awesome this week AND taking proper photos of it. I really, really want to get better at doing that and stop using phone photos. But I also want to maintain a vaguely weekly post on this blog. Seeing as this whole week has been a blur of after work activity, full of bottom-of-the-fridge soup, baked beans and toasted cheese sandwiches - no real cooking for real photos eventuated. So I thought I'd do a post on a party my husband and I threw. We absolutely love entertaining and having people over, so I thought I'd add a few posts of our past parties to maybe inspire you when I don't have any recipe photos lined up. I thought I'd start with a party we threw for a friend almost exactly a year ago. Maybe you can use some of the details in a party of your own!

Last year, a whole bunch of my usual crew turned 30. And all over pinterest were photos of "30 Sucks" lollipop bouquets. Seriously, how did it know? Did the whole world turn 30 last year?? Seeing this, and having had many a Buffy conversation over the years with the birthday boy - the theme was born...30 Sucks. Double-meaninged "sucks". Perfect, right? Theme chosen, we got to work.



Front of the invitation

And when you open it up...

We were lucky enough that after the theme was picked, the party supply shop down the road were having a chuck-out sale of all their old Halloween stuff, in preparation for new stock. We were able to turn our games room into a haunted castle without a huge expense. I then made blood-rimmed wine glasses and little coffin treat boxes (complete with lollipop 'skeleton'). I also made jelly worms and labelled reddish juices as various blood types to go with the usual party fare.

 

 

 

We played vampire themed versions of normal kids party games. I love playing games at parties - even as an adult. I don't think it's nearly encouraged enough, except for at Kitchen Teas! Our games were "Pin the Bite Mark to the Victim", "Suck it til it Fits", "Pass the Suspicious Looking Parcel" and a version of musical statues, using horror poses as the "freeze".



A friend who couldn't make it came as a staked vampire!

And when it was time to make the cake, I went to my favourite go-to cupcakes - red velvet. Delicious and the colours suited the theme.

 

If you want any more details about any of this party, send me an email!

Entertaining - Tapas Sliders Night

The idea for this post came from three sources. Firstly, I am a huge fan of tapas style food. I want to try all of the things, so small amounts of various items is the best! When I go to restaurants, I can usually rope a few people into ordering multiple starters and make it a DIY tapas night, instead of ordering mains. Have you noticed that generally, the most unique and interesting food flavours are in the entrees? I'm assuming it's because if you don't like it, there's only a small amount and you've got your mains coming. But it's such a fun way of dining to try only smaller dishes.

One of my favourite restaurants is Watershed Winery near Margaret River and it's because they have a tasting plate appetiser for two and tasting plate dessert. Each plate comes with around 6 perfectly created mini-dishes. All different and unique, but still complimentary. I've often wanted to re-create this style of dinner party at home, but it's a lot of work to make so many mini-dishes. I actually want to do a tasting plate entree, main and dessert. 18 dishes for one dinner!

Secondly, my work Christmas party last year. It was a cocktail event, with lots of wonderful snacks going past and free-flowing champagne. It was getting towards the end of the night, when I'd danced to my heart's content and drank a few too many bubbles when I started to smell the most amazing smell. Burgers. And then I saw the tray of sliders the waiters were bringing around. Best. Idea. Ever. Mini-burgers for drunk folk, just before midnight.

I was discussing how perfect that idea was after she'd said she had pork sliders for lunch that day when we came up with a brilliant easy dinner party idea - tapas sliders. Mini-burgers with a choice of patties. So you can try multiple burgers in one night, or just stick to your favourite if you're a bit fussier. All of the patties can be prepared beforehand and then just grilled when your guests arrive. You can perfect the topping combinations for them, or like we did, create a burger station where they can experiment on their own. 

Our burger combinations suggestions were:

Beef patties - with cheese, beetroot, salad and tomato sauce
Pulled pork - with BBQ sauce, pineapple and coleslaw
Grilled pumpkin - with avocado and grilled haloumi
Prawn patties - with avocado and mango salsa

I made the pulled pork and prawn burgers. My friend brought the pumpkin and beef patties.

Our buns were a little on the large side for sliders, so I had my beef burger bunless as you can see in the pictures below. Sorry, all phone photos still.
 

 

 

 

 

Happy Valentine's Day : Castle Gingerbread

 

I like the idea of Valentine’s Day, because I think all things love and romance should definitely be celebrated. Love is infectious!  But I find the reality is that when you have a partner, it can be more of an obligation than a loving thing. And not necessarily from your partner! Everybody judging what you’ve spent, how much effort has been put in.  My husband and I have never celebrated Valentine’s Day, instead celebrating the days that are significant to us throughout the year, and spontaneously showing our love to each other with gifts and dates. But it never hurts to show your love and appreciation to the special people in your life. Who doesn't love getting chocolates and flowers!

 

In the interests of spreading the love and joy and all the good parts of Valentine’s Day, I am going to tell you a story with this recipe of my first birthday with my partner. Hopefully it will make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. If I bring a smile to your face this Valentine’s Day, then I will consider it successfully celebrated.

 

Early on in our friendship, my husband learnt two pertinent facts about me.

 
1. That I was moving to Scotland (to live in a castle) and

2. That even as an adult, I still adore the movie “Labyrinth”.

Fast forward about 7 months later and I moved to Scotland, briefly, before moving home again. We then started dating and moved in together. One afternoon on the couch he tells me nonchalantly that he wants to throw me a masked ball, like in the Labyrinth, for my birthday. He’ll host it at his parent’s house, but it will mean him moving home for a few weeks before the party so he can do the gardens up, and prepare and decorate. The set-up is to be a surprise. We plan various things for the party over the next few months, we build a Zoltar machine, we send out invitations, we make our masks. He moves back into his parents’ house, and eventually the party is upon us. When I arrive, I am escorted outside. The garden has fairy lights everywhere, there is a throne for me to sit on and there are hundreds of our friends and family all in masks, looking amazing.

Then it is time for the “ceremony”. He plansed an elaborate presentation (again, based on the movie) in which this wonderful gingerbread Labyrinth castle is revealed to me. The whole thing is edible (minus a few props) and reflects different scenes from the movie. Everything it is made from had special significance to us and our relationship. It took him 3 weeks to bake and assemble the whole thing, and that was working 16 hour days. He took 3 weeks off work to do it! He is not a baker or caterer or anything like that by trade, he just got this wonderfully sweet idea in his head and decided to make it happen for me. For scale, I am a touch shy of 6'2".

So now, I present to you his recipe for  Castle Gingerbread. His notes for this are – heap the spoons of ginger, and best to make a double batch. Maybe you can spread the love and give your special people some gingerbread made from the heart.

Happy Valentine's Day.

 

 

 

Castle Gingerbread

125g butter

½ cup brown sugar

1 egg yolk

2 ½ cups plain flour

1tsp bicarb soda

3tsp ground ginger

2 ½ tbsp. gold syrup

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy

Add egg yolk, beat well until lighter in colour

Gradually add sifted dry ingredients alternated with golden syrup

Mix well, knead lightly

Roll out on a lightly floured surface to desired thickness, cut shapes

Place on baking paper on trays

Bake approx. 10 minutes at 180C

The 'Firies', the bog of eternal stench, the worm

The robot door man

Who can forget Hoggle peeing in the pond at the start of the movie?!