That's enough roast potatoes
We're having three parties this weekend, lunch for 120 on Saturday, lunch for 100 on Sunday, and then the young are having a dance on Sunday evening. So I'm busy. Lettice cooked dinner last night ... yet more roast potatoes (some people have had them three nights in a row this week), with roast chicken. Also roasted peppers and onions, stewed mushrooms, and a salad. Delicious. Lettice cooks her roasties in a conventional manner, no funny shapes, no holes, no bacon - and they were perfect. I only had one, because (whisper it gently) I'm getting rather fed up with them. Horatio ate dozens.
I got up early early this morning and drove to Covent Garden flower market to buy flowers for the marquee. Only as I was driving home did I realise that virtually all the flowers I had bought were scented ... lilies, lavender, tobacco, stocks. Sunflowers were the only exception, because I couldn't resist them. They're in buckets of water now, and I'll arrange them tomorrow, nothing too fancy, just one type of flower (one colour in the case of the stocks).
It's the first time I've ever handed the food over to a caterer, a very special lady called Jenny. We're having cold meats, salmon, tarts, with salad and hot potatoes, because Lucius always wants hot potatoes. Then soft fruit for pudding. Samphire with the salmon if we can find it. I'll keep you posted, and try to get a couple of the tart recipes from Jenny, as they sound wonderful. Sunday night the organic farmer who comes to the Henley farmers' market is doing a pig roast.
I'm off to buy yet more beer for the boys ... in the mean time, here are the flowers:
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8 comments:
Fabulous flowers, the marquee will smell wonderful. Have a good time at your parties.
I love the smell of stocks - I spent my pre school years and summer holidays with my grandparents in their flower packing barn (stocks, lilac, chysant's, py's, gyp', sap', blue-gown, and dewmosa - evocative words to me). Scent brings back memories like nothing else.
Have a wonderful weekend!!!!
Celia
Joanna I can never get tired of potatoes. They are always on my list.
Pig roast, the best pork I ever had was when Gorn & a neighbor roasted a pig in the rain all day! They drank a lot of beer. But that meat was totally amazing!!
Celia, what a wonderful childhood memory, all those flowers, all that scent. My grandfather's farm grew sugar beet ... but he had a garden full of lovely flowers - lupins in particular were a favourite of his.
Thanks for your good wishes, toffeeapple
Tanna, I just hope that our hogroast isn't in the rain!!
Have a wonderful weekend full of fun at your parties. The menus sound so good - even the potatoes! The flower photos were a nice bright spot in my day! Can't wait to hear all about it!
Have a nice time! There's nothing better than hog roast or porchetta as it is called here! Beautiful flowers and I'm sure they will look lovely in the marquee!
Your flowers look beautiful. Three parties in one weekend and you still have time to blog, I am impressed Joanna.
Blogging keeps me sane - although people who do not blog have the rather weird idea that blogging is itself insane!
As I'm deciding what to blog about, I find I'm evaluating more than the food, so it's reflective without being self-absorbed. And I really value a number of my online friendships, like so many bloggers, and not just those who have organised blogmeets.
And, toffeeapple, you're right, the marquee smelt MARVELLOUS this morning when I went to check on the flowers, and that's before I've arranged them (although that's quite a big word for the kind of careless chucking I'm planning to do!)
Joanna
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