Golden Oldies

Backblip

Our daughter and her family joined us for a 1970 themed, socially distant, evening garden party to celebrate our Golden Wedding. We dressed a wooded area with junk out of the sheds and made a fire pit from an old wire dispenser that was used for the construction of our carnation beds.

I made a 'Sputnik' of cheese on sticks with pineapple and silverskin onions. Unlike in the 70s, I used fresh pineapple. Mine cost only 49p! It looked a bit iffy but my late MiL, a greengrocer, advised me that is a sign of ripeness. I also made mini prawn cocktails in shot glasses and tiny bowls of melon balls with Maraschino. I looked everywhere for teeny baskets but couldn't get any so made my own for 'scampi in a basket' served with home-made tartare sauce. Ollie dog particularly liked the melba toast. :) 

MrQ got out an old table-top gas stove that belonged to his uncle Leslie.  The plan was to cook steak Diane on it but it didn't have much oomph so we cooked the steaks on the BBQ. I was able to deglaze a pan which I had cooked tomatoes and mushrooms in with brandy and flame it. Luckily I had made the Diane sauce in advance. I made a Pavlova and an arctic roll for pudding.

We had a bottle of champagne of course but I also got Mateus Rose (yuk) and Mosel Riesling as MrQ brought back lots in 1970 when he went to Germany on a growers' trip.

My granddaughter made a 1970 playlist. It took her ages but I was delighted as it really added to the lovely festival-like ambiance. Not that I would know what that is like as I've never been to one:)

PS I heard a lovely engine when I was working in the kitchen and rushed outside to see a Dakota giving us a fly-past.