whine & dine

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A bunch of Bunny’s ex-colleagues and friends came over for drinks (and housewarming of sorts) on Saturday, and because they’re a particularly greedy bunch (don’t any of you dare contest that if you’re reading this!), I decided not to do a sit-down meal, and just prepared a whole slew of finger food and canapès for them to go with a couple of bottles of wine.

Most of the food was inspired by various recipes in various cookbooks, including Donna Hay – Instant Entertaining (my valentine’s day present from Bunny), The Cook’s Book (latest addition to my cookbook collection), and browsing through the Jamie Oliver cookbooks that I own.

On the menu for Saturday was Smoked Salmon on Egg Frittata (pictured above), two types of crostini, and Chilli and Lemongrass Chicken which I served on endive leaves.

I also made a bunch of Paper Thin Crisp Bread using a recipe for soft white bread (plus a lot of oil, plus a lot of folding, working, and stretching) in The Cook’s Book, which I served with hummus, and finished off the evening with Vanilla Bean Panna Cotta, topped with strawberries that I’d left to “soak” in icing sugar in the fridge.

It was a really good experience for me, seeing as how I’m thinking of starting a catering service of sorts in the near future, particularly catering (pun unintended) to the needs of people who want to host small drinks parties at home, but don’t have the time/energy to do up the food prep on their own.

Anyway, if any of you have the need for such a service or any feedback/thoughts, leave a comment or send me an emiao.