Saturday 25 September 2010

Clean and tidy

We have friends coming over for dinner tonight. This means that I am now officially exhausted due to a) preparing all the food and b) spring cleaning the entire ground floor of the house so that all is neat and tidy for when they arrive. Why do I feel the need to do this? They are good friends and drop in unexpectedly from time to time so know how the house normally looks! But something in me needs to have it all looking freshly springcleaned which has one bonus in that I won't need to do any housework for the next week ;-)
I am taking a bit of a risk tonight and although the main course is a tried and tested recipe, I'm doing a couple of desserts and I've not tried either of them before. Could this be a mistake? The first one is a Nigel Slater recipe for almond, apricot and raspberry cake which I am going to serve dusted with icing sugar with a spoonful of whipped cream by the side. It looks good, but you know how they say 'the proof of the pudding is in the eating'! The other dessert I'm trying is a new Nigella Lawson one for a Lemon Meringue fool. I love lemon. I love meringue. So even if no one else wants this ... all the more for me!!! Basically you mix some lemoncello in with lemon curd, whip some cream and fold most of the lemon mixture through so you get a marbled effect. Break up some meringues, mix it all together and then drizzle a little lemon curd/lemoncello mix over the top. Served in cocktail glasses. Sounds easy peasy but you can't make it more than 3 hours in advance. Bearing in mind it is now 6.30 and I'm still sitting here blogging wearing my jeans and no make up, I'm thinking maybe I ought to be getting a move on.
Bon Appetit - hope you are having a good Saturday night whatever you are doing!

7 comments:

Denise said...

It all sounds very yummy and I bet your ground floor looks spick and span - enjoy - don't forget to take some photos :-) xx

Jennifer Grace said...

lol, I do exactly the same thing stressing about the housework when we have guests coming, I'm sure they don't care! The Nigel Slater cake sounds delicious, I'll look forward to you telling us how it tasted! x

Rachel Brett said...

Ooh sounds yummy, hope you had a nice time last night :)

Sian said...

I hope it all went well - certainly sounds delicious and I'm interested in how the Nigel Slater recipe turned out too.

Deb @ PaperTurtle said...

I don't know what it is that makes us run around like crazy women cleaning our house from top to bottom before company arrives. Oh well, the bonus is that you have a nice clean house for a few days even after the company has gone.

Hope your desserts were fabulous! They sound yummy! xo

Scrappi Sandi said...

I am drooling at the very thought of that lemon dessert!!!

Hope it all went to plan & you enjoyed your evening!

How fab to have a minimal housework week as a reward for all your doubled efforts...I do exactly the same when I know visitors are due...but I do the upstairs too...just in case they venture up there...madness!!!!

humel said...

Did it go well? I'm always trying new recipes for dinner parties - which has led to a couple of unfortunate incidents (undercooked chicken on one occasion, rock-solid chocolate 'mousse' on another...) but usually seems to work!

As for the cleaning, we invite people around fairly regularly as an incentive to keep the house fairly clean and tidy! xx