Country & Western themed party menu

Since my birthday falls in July, and going out drinking has lost it's appeal, for the last few years I've hosted a vaguely themed garden party.

Last year was just a big celebration, as it was my 30th, and my best friend and fellow cake judge Charlotte's birthday is 2 days before mine and the planets aligned so that we could hold the joint party we've always wanted to.

The year before was Cuban themed, and there were cuban sandwiches and twix bars with labels on to make them look like cigars, the year before that was classic garden party miniature food, cucumber sandwiches with added home made drinks and wine.

Anyway, this year, in honour of the marvelous that is country & western, and the fat that this time last year we weren't long back from our trip to the Deep South we went with a Deep south / Tex Mex / Amercian themed menu - and a 40 hour Spoitfy Playlist.

With a guest list of 25ish (according to facebook) and rain planned all day we abandoned the original idea of a gingham filled sit down meal outside and went for classic buffet party fare:

Sweetcorn (frozen) to be grilled
Chickpea, Feta & Avocado salad
Quorn Hot Dogs & Veggie Chilli
Tex Mex Bean Salad - http://www.yummymummykitchen.com/2014/01/tex-mex-rice-and-black-bean-salad-wraps.html
Easy Potato Skins - http://www.iheartnaptime.net/easy-potato-skins-recipe/
Savory Pop Corn (Already have)
BBQ Chicken Pizzas

As it turned out, and is often the way - We didn't get around to the pop corn or the sweetcorn, or the potato skins, although we did have those last night with the left over chilli and rice salad - and they are indeed easy and delicious.

But things like the Chilli cheese dogs were a hit, and enough that no one complained about the lack of meat, not that my friends would do that.

Drinks wise I made Sweet Ice Tea (http://www.budgetsavvydiva.com/2012/07/perfect-southern-sweet-tea-recipe/) and Pete made up some Apple Pie Moonshine (with vodka instead of pure grain spirit) and we had lemonade and pimms alongside the usual beers and soda.

The star of the show however was my cowboy boot cake from the very talented Danielle at the top of the post, which is the same filling as the Reddit Alien Snack Exchange Cake - Mississippi Mud Pie...

The Fish Graveyard

I suppose I should update you on the fish - we've currently got 3 Isambard*, Nietzsche , Vince - they seem fine. The extreme cold did a few in and they probably need some proper TLC. Anyway - Pete and I were trying to recall other fish we'd had over the years so I started scanning the blog for fish related posts and I came across the fish graveyard from an old bit of my website that still floating around the tubes of the internet... So here it is - in memory of of the valiant pets of old. And for the ones that don't have little grave markers (or dates) Darnell Bertrand Pushkin Heisenburg I should possibly make a marker for the tomb of the unknown goldfish because I'm sure we've forgotten one... .. time for some more fish? Any ideas for names?? *We were slightly uncertain for a while if it was Heisenburg or Isambard that had survived

Tofu Recipe Round Up

More for my own benefit then anything else I'm going to round up my favourite go-to weeknight tofu recipes. This is different from my pinterest board which is full of things I haven't necessarily tried yet but look yummy. Vegan Tofu Taco Crumbles Vietnamese Fried Tofu w/ Tomato Sauce – Dau Sot Ca Chua (I airfry the tofu for this one) I also like to slather it in BBQ sauce and bake it for about 40 mins with peppers and onions before adding it to wraps with some salad. I've also found it's a great substitute for paneer in things - it's not quite there but it's close oh, and if I do need to press it, and I haven't got time (which is almost always) I used the microwave method from this chirpy little video

The Pretty, The Easy and the things on Sticks #2

I've spoken before about Pinterest, and how pretty everything is on there, but there's another side, a very definite, and I can only guess american trend - the easy fix. Easy cheats, how to make things without the effort, how to cheat, how to make restaurant specials at home, so you end up with a massive jug of frappachino mix or a dressing not too dissimilar from the amazing blue cheese dressing at Pizza Hut (this is our holy grail - we've gone to PH just to eat the Blue Cheese dressing) and it shows an interesting side of people, and if you look at the ingredients they use, and most of these tips and tricks would be impossible to remake outside of the states. Source: therebelchick.com via Rebecca E. on Pinterest This isn't a new thing - Top Secret Recipes was one of the first websites I remember checking back and linking too - even if I was looking at recipes I had no idea what the original tasted like, but it's impressive so much effort is given over to ma...

Worm's World

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