Birthday Bash and Family News

On Sunday, family and friends gathered for a spot of tea to celebrate Miss U-t-B's 15th 
birthday.  


How the years have flown...

(Proud...

...Mummy...

...moments)

I had a jolly nice time planning and baking, mixing and spreading, boiling and brewing for the guests.

I love an excuse to get out a bit of old china, some pretty linen and a bit of EPNS!

Mr U-t-B does not appreciate my 'Grey Dawn' china, though he can just about cope with the more decorative set beneath...

The biggest disappointment in the baking were the tiny meringues (though actually almost everything I made went wrong in some way or another...) They were meant to be candy-striped, having carefully painted stripes of red food colour inside the piping bag.  I think maybe you need to use gel colour instead for this to work properly, though the meringues did have a pinkish hue, which was quite pretty if not the effect intended.

These sandwiches (whilst looking a little lacking in the colour department thanks to the fact that I merrily chopped every last stalk of parsley, before remembering that a little garnish would be useful) were the savoury hit of the day. 

(Parsley butter between two slices of bread, then chopped chicken breast, mayonnaise and lemon juice mixed and spread on top, capped with a third slice of bread - decrusted and cut into fingers.  Guaranteed to please!)

There were, of course, Iced Gems and Party Rings.  

I believe it is the law that these should be served at any birthday party.

This dumpy little teapot caused a major drama after everyone had left, in that its lid had mysteriously disappeared.  

I spent a ridiculous amount of time searching for it, including three searches through the (fortunately small) contents of the bin, hunts in the fridge and freezer and frantic forays into every kitchen cupboard.  I gave up in the end (it doesn't pour very well anyway, I consoled myself), then it turned up the next day, hiding neatly underneath a stainless steel spoon rest on the draining board!

Did you spot my lovely sandwich wraps?  

I've had them for years but finally remembered to put them into use.  Miss U-t-B had requested cucumber sandwiches, smoked salmon and cream cheese always go down well, and I put the egg and roasted red pepper into the 'Cheese' wrap.  I was ironing them after a wash today and found that the Salmon one, in spite of looking pristinely clean, oozed a strong aroma of tinned salmon!

A lovely time was had by all (I think).  

But our family celebrations have been a bit more 

all-encompassing in the last seven days.  First, Mr U-t-B's son announced his engagement to the lovely Mags and then grandchild number two put in an appearance in the form of a scan picture, courtesy of the eldest of the three girls!  

Looks like 2012 will be a busy year!