anti-pasti, hawaiian pizzas & ice cream

And so the big day dawns, and it dawns beautifully! It's clearly baking hot with what can only be described - much to Page's amusement - as a fatal wind. Reader, the feckless youth mocked my description, but I was proved correct as Lucyfer's skin later attested. At least I don't think she was that shade of lobster before. Anyhoo, cracking on as I know this is over a week late now...

As predicted, last night's Cranium backfired, but only Tom who's clearly suffering. This turns out to be an opportunity for myself and Lucyfer who help ourselves to his sausages from the marvellous breakfast cooked by Jody, Amy and Euan.

Breakfast over, there's only a few short hours to nibble the complimentary clotted cream and strawberries in the sun before we have to get changed for Jandy's connubial nuptials.

Here we are relaxing post ceremony on the Ha-Ha outside Scorrier House:

From left to right: Mr Robin Brown ESQ, Mr G Tom ESQ, Mrs Anouska Louise Barnes, Miss Rachel Ferguson, Emma ?, Miss Sasha Breslau, Mrs Amy Steele Smith, Mr Matt & Mr Joe Smith. Being the senior married couple, we occupied the Mr & Mrs Elton role.

And here is the crack former-Channel 4 Entertainment team:


Jon, being from Ashby via Hawaii, and Mandy being from Cornwall via Planet Hello Kitty, meant the meal was a brilliant mix of party food which tipped its cap to both; anti-pasti to start, a selection of pastas and pizza for main, and Mandy's family recipe ice cream for dessert.

Throw in a keg of beer, party poppers, fake moustaches, leis, silly balloons and somewhat inexplicably, a Native American headdress, and the whole thing turned into the perfect kids party. Which suited mine and mccarthy's silly dancing down to the ground.

Naturally Ana being the next David Irving, I'm not allowed to show silly dancing pictures because IT NEVER HAPPENED! Much like her shouting at the DJ when he played Bat Out of Hell, the post-dancing cornish pasties, and Rachel wrestling Sasha off my hip so she could be spun and dipped on the dancefloor also didn't happen. Instead here's a picture of us being sensible:


M congrats Jandy, btw. We loved it!

holiday round-up

No updates for the past fortnight because we've been away, lording it up in Italy for a week and then enjoying the social event of the year in Florent-en-Argonne for Matt & Virginie's wedding.

I could list out everything we ate and did, but that would take *forever* and it's supposed to be a holiday so I'll highlight a few things instead.

1. Italy was mainly Parmesan and beer/wine-based. I cooked twice - classic St Hugh ratatouille for our Tuscan Ashes Party. Yes Ronald, our ASHES PARTY. I also sprayed a bottle of beer into the pool.

Earlier in the week I also 'knocked together' a meal for eight, as you do. It was the usual chorizo & tomato salad, parma ham, mozzarella and peach salad and a chicken, spinach and pasta dish one of spana's friends cooked for us on the Isle of Wight years ago. I'd forgotten about it, but desperately searching for a recipe based on what we had in the fridge which would feed large quantities of people inspiration struck and I cobbled it more-or-less together. The kitchen was very small though.

2. We had a lady come to the villa and cook for us twice. She was amazing! I'm going to attempt her risotto at some point, once I've decided what went into it. Veg mainly, and definitely celery and celery salt. I'll have to experiment...

3. Eating out in both Italy and France is the best thing ever. We swanked it up in Italy, and other than the wedding, we ate in a local brasserie in France and EVERYTHING was brilliant. We didn't eat the local French delicacy of Pieds de Cochon however, although we did have Pike as part of the wedding feast. It was curiously very nice, who knew?

5. Florent-en-Argonne is the home of Dom Perignon. Ana didn't get too over-excited because she's a lady.

6. The milos will eat *anything*. On our last night in Italy we went to a beautiful Osteria where he pretty much had everything I had: spiced chickpea soup, fresh spaghetti with duck and truffle, roast duck and salad, plus my fruity pudding. Oh, and Italians heart blonde babies who have been trained to say 'Bongiorno'.

7. The diet starts now!