Sunday lunch – with guests

Thank you for your numerous comments on Saturday’s post. It seems the shorter the post, the more comments I get; as if my readers are trying to make up for the lack of lines. Mmmm, maybe I should keep this in mind the next time I get carried away writing a long entry. No sorry, I’m only kidding. You really are the best and I’m always looking forward to your feedback!

But back to the mystery party. It wasn’t a big deal actually. It was our regular Sunday lunch, with some extra trimmings in honour of our guests, my cousin I. and her husband W. As I mentioned before, I. is one of my mother’s bother’s daughters (he has three daughters and two sons). I. is also my mother’s godchild and as she is only 16 months older than I am, we’ve always been very close, except for some minor differences in recent years. But today, all’s well again and I was happy to have them over for a late New Year’s lunch.

I had put my camera in the kitchen, firmly decided to take a photo of each and every dish that left the kitchen. With my mother entertaining our guests, I thought I would have ample time to shoot some savoury shots! But I had forgotten that W., I.’s husband is a real foodie. Moreover, family chitchat between my mother and my cousin seemed to bore him. So each time I made my way towards the kitchen to open the bottle of Champagne, prepare the appetizers, the first and the main course, he came tagging along, offering a hand.

As a result I only shot one photo:

I tried to dress this elegantly, but W. was watching my every move,
which made me somewhat nervous.

Care to know what we had?

We started with Premier Cru Champagne from Heidsick Monopole and three finger foot appetizers (per person): a mini quiche, smoked salmon roll stuffed with Boursin cream cheese and a butternut squash velouté (hence the verrine).

Next came the Italian charcuterie anti-pasti: cured ham, salami, pancetta, bresola, mozzarella slices, mache and cherry tomatoes … served with hot ‘petits pains’ and real Belgian farm butter. I can’t claim any merit for this dish, because it only involved dressing everything on a large serving plate that once belonged to my grandmother. But my main course was home-made! The ‘Hairy Biker’s Ham, Chicken and Leek’ pie. Well, not completely. I confess that I bought the pastry ready-made. Not because I’m too lazy to make it myself, but simply because I’m no good at it.

With the meal we had an excellent Sancerre Rouge. Even W., who’s more a ‘vin du Sud’ man was impressed and really enjoyed it … handing over his car keys to I. for the drive home. Not that he had too much, but just too much when you’re stopped by the police; a very plausible risk these days.

Our guests brought dessert: a succulent fruit and cream tart. With it we had tea or coffee and by half past five our guests said goodbye, leaving us with a pretty good feeling and lots of late new Year’s gifts …

*****

P.S. You may have notived in the sidebar that it is snowing today in Brussels. I hereby confirm that it is. Not a lot, and nothing to worry about, road-wise that is, but let's hope it doesn't snow overnight. I hate driving on slippery roads!