New Year's Eve

I never did tell you about my New Year celebrations, did I? So caught up in my pitiful bubble of sleepless nights, weeping and making complicated decisions that I forgot to mention that I did actually have a lovely time.

In January I only managed to post a few photographs of the entire Christmas break before I retired back to bed with a large blanket and an even larger gin.

Well today is 1st February folks, and it is my very own New Year's Day. Considering that the 1st of January was spent immersed in the sad chaos of a break up and the additional chaos of tidying my parents house after a massive party, I didn't really get to experience that sense of boundless optimism and enthusiastic resolve that the first day of a new year can bring.

After going on and on about the planning for the New Year party, at which I was tasked with feeding 22 people, I finally settled on a menu that was filled with amazing locally produced food (Ramsay would be proud!) and would cause me minimum stress.

That menu went as follows:

Fresh smoked salmon, produced at the Exe Valley Fishery

Sausages with chorizo and lentil served with mashed potato and roasted parsnips (recipe can be found here)

Ice cream sundae with Langage farm ice cream, amaretti biscuits and baileys .

The starter was simple and, although smoked salmon feels like quite a basic dish, when there are this many people to feed that is very appealing. I spent a lot on the salmon and on the bread and my dear friend Katy ,who stepped in as sous chef for the night, prepared several plates of beautifully arranged bread as well as the salmon so people could help themselves. This course received heaps of praise, I think it is a rare delight to enjoy really high quality salmon and I was lucky enough that our local fishery is so fantastic (and that the fishmongers had some in stock).

The best thing about the main course was that I was able to make the dish during the day and as such I spent a leisurely afternoon copping onions, chorizo and garlic while chatting to my friends as they arrived at the house. By 4pm all the preparation was done and I simply put two large pots into the aga and left them for 3 hours. The added cooking time (you can put this dish in the oven or ago for just 45 minutes) meant that flavour was even more rich and intense.

The difficulty with cooking for this many people is gauging how much food to make. I underestimated the potatoes meaning there was only just enough mash to go around. Of course I'd always rather have too much than not enough but it did mean we weren't all completely stuffed at the end of the meal and immediately felt sprightly enough to jump up at midnight and dance the night away.

The dessert was a bit of a cop out, I was just too exhausted to make something more elaborate. But we covered the sundaes in sparklers and edible stars. It felt like a children's party treat which perfectly set the mood for the behaviour that followed throughout the night.

Mini-break

Frankly I'm getting bored of my moping and moaning, so I can only imagine how my friends are faring.

In all honesty I've barely been out over the last fortnight, preferring to hole up with a bad box set and a bottle of wine. I am attempting to tick off my list but it is ever so tempting to indulge in my melancholy and turn to my dear friend Mrs Gin (yes, that is her name) for comfort.

Tomorrow I depart for 4 days in Edinburgh to see my best friend and her new baby Elodie. She has already given me a firm talking to about my current attitude and I have no doubt she will give me another pep talk tomorrow before taking me out to paint the town red (or should that be blue considering it's currently -1 in the city).

I plan to have complete radio silence while away which means no phone, no internet and no distractions. I will be taking a lot of pictures though and listening to a lot of jazz which I have decided is to be a new hobby of mine.

Have a wonderful few days and I hope to return next week rejuvenated and on some way to returning to my old self.

Meals for the masses

To celebrate this New Year's Eve, some friends and I will be descending on my parents home in Devon to enjoy some country air and some good food.

My parents are going to be away, so I will be mistress of the house and responsible for a group of about 12 people for several days. On New Year's Eve there will be a few more of us, and I want to feed them a great meal before the celebrations get going.

I really need ideas for feeding a group this size. From the 12 people around the table in the run up to the New Year, to the 20 who will be there on the big night.

Anyone have any ideas for filling this many hungry mouths? All I have so far is sausage and mash (yawn) and a delicious chorizo, sausage and lentil stew which I cooked on Saturday and I think could definitely be done on mass.

I'd love to hear your go to dishes for feeding a hungry crowd...

Glitterati

Last night my dear friend Katy invited me to join her at a party at the Hospital in Covent Garden. She also, wonderful friend that she is, offered to screen X-factor on the cinema sized TV in her lounge AND to provide me with delicious Mexican food as I watched it. I am lucky!

At the party there were several awesome acts including a woman who could swing about 20 hula hoops around her waist at one time, and looked fantastic in the leopard print catsuit she wore while doing so.

The highlight for me were the group of make up artists doing glitter art on the faces of guests. They were amazingly talented, painting peoples entire faces in some instances. I opted for silver and gold eyelids which I fell in love with. I think it adds a feminine and glamorous look to evening make up and would just love to learn to do this myself.

Preparing

The past week and weekend has been spent preparing for my 2 week trip to Rimini. As such I have spent it:

• Twittering the Rimini tourist board for a daily weather report (the BBC says rain for the next 5 days - not happy at all)
• Purchasing excessive amount of sun cream (25 for day 1, 15 for first week and 10 for second week). So far I have spent £35 on sun cream. Perhaps someone should suggest to our Health Secretary that it may be advisable to subsidise the price of sun cream and as such decrease the colossal amount the NHS pay every year to treat those with skin cancer.
• Spending a hot Sunday inside the Westfield centre buying sandals and satin shirts and white shorts with floral detail.
• Catching up with friends I haven't seen for a while. This included: eating and drinking at Andrew Edmunds on Lexington St, getting snap happy as my friend danced the Lambada, having a delicious salad and wine from a Starbucks plastic cup in Queen's Park, sitting outside the Sun in Splendour in Notting Hill and drinking white wine spritzers.

I saw these 3 cats prowling outside a flat opposite mine as I stumbled home the other night. I love how their eyes glow as they watch me pass.

Oh, to be beside the seaside

These pictures were taken in Whistand Bay, Cornwall, one of my favourite places in the world. The beach is reached by driving along steep cliffs and along windy Cornish roads and then by an almost diagonal slope down to the sand. 

If you're lucky enough to have grown up near to this beach then you will also know about the amazing path that creeps along beside the hidden beach huts - some of the only residential beach huts in the UK. They are like something about of a dream, or the lovely shire of the Hobbits in the Lord of the Rings.  

When I was working as a researcher for a TV company, I had to hunt out some of the owners of these huts for a feature on waterside living. One day I knocked on the door of a couple who had just come home with their day old baby. They welcomed me with open arms (we'd never met!) and we all sat shellshocked, chatting together and watching the sun setting over the sea. I made tea, heating water in a black pot on top of their little stove and drinking sweet tea out of white tin mugs. 

I dream of living in one of these huts, waking with the rising sun and spending my day tending to the fuchsias and sweet williams in the garden. 

Yet I would miss the busy pulse of London..the traffic of Old St, the smells of the market on Whitecross St, the aggressive elbows that greet me on Oxford Circus, the rainbow of colours on Colombia Rd, the coffee on Monmouth St, the luscious greens and community of strangers in Queens Park and most of all the friends who have foolishly chosen to allow me to adopt them as my surrogate family in this foreign city.