I turned 30 last year in December and decided to delay having a birthday bash as December is a particularly poor month for organising a party. It also gave me plenty of time to figure out what I wanted to do. In the end I decided to host a party at my place and provide all the catering minus any alcohol. Well, last Sunday was the day and I was really happy with how things turned out.
Catering for a party with 26 guests would prove to be quite a challenge but thankfully I had enough for everyone with just a little bit left over. Preparations started on Friday night with an ingredients breakdown in numbers (like MS Excel) followed by a grocery shop at Coles. I had planned to make one dessert on Friday night but was too buggered and so went to bed early. Saturday morning started with a flurry. I planned to make three desserts, nanaimo bars, peppermint crisp cheesecake and a lime and coconut sorbet. I had made the nanaimo bars and the cheesecake before but was going into unknown territory with the sorbet. Things didn't exactly get off to a good start when I poored to much milk into the custard mix and had to throw it all out and start again. By midday I had completed most of the three desserts.
After visiting a friend for a bit and then completing a fresh food shop it was time for the marinade preparations. For the main meat selection I planned to make chicken tikka skewers, chicken tandoori drumets and moroccan lamb skewers. For something different I bought some Boerewors (South African sausage) as well. All the preparations went well and leaving the meat to marinad over night turned out to be a winner. For snacks the plan was to make baked vegetable samosas and pork spring rolls. So the last task for Saturday was to make the fillings for the samosas and the spring rolls. By 10pm I was buggered and called it a night.
Sunday started early with the main objective to have the olive bread and the three salads done by 11am. The three salads were a dill, capsicum and tomato past salad, a chickpea salad and a greek salad. I had only made the pasta salad before so it was going to be a challenge to get the other two done in quick time. 11am went past and I had only finished two of the salads. This was the trigger to put the call out for reinforcements. I had planned for one of my friends to come over a little earlier to help out but soon realised that more were needed. By 12 I still had to roll the spring rolls and samosas, make the skewers, finish off one of the desserts, prepare the BBQ and put out the cheese and crackers. With the extra help everything was pretty much completed by 2pm which was when the first guests were expected to arrive.
Slowly but surely everyone started turning up and by 3:30 or so we were tucking in to all of the tasty food. I was a litte surprised about the items that people seemed to enjoy the most. The olive bread was a big hit and the greek salad seemed to go down quite well. It was really great to see everyone there and as the day got on I had more time to catch up with everyone. Out of the desserts the lime and coconut sorbet was a real hit and a big thanks to one of my friends for bringing over a pavlova as well.
After a long day I was completely hammered but it was definitely one of the best birthdays I've had. I really enjoyed cooking for everyone and was happy with how all the food turned out. I can't say I'll be catering for 26 people again in a hurry but I'll definitely do it again in the future. The only downside is I have no photos to post. Oh well next time.
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