I noticed a while back that our neighbour on the Isle of Man, Terry, was due for a birthday on January 3rd. Being a sharp-eyed individual, I also spotted that the 3rd fell on a Saturday this year. What better excuse for a party!! So I quiety contacted Terry’s wife, Julie, and we arranged to hijack his evening with a meal at ours. We also invited Kate and Dominic who are close neighbours. This is the “team” that M-D and I refer to as “The Big Six”… Terry, Julie, Kate, Dominic, M-D and myself! In fact, Julie and Kate were friends when they were young then, just a few years ago, discovered that they were living on opposite sides of the same street! Small world.

What we didn’t know when we planned to hijack Terry’s birthday was that it was Julie’s birthday on 31st December. And what they didn’t know (until M-D told them) was that it’s mine on 6th January. So you can imagine that the aperitif was more alcoholic than normal (and normal is pretty good!). We repeated a little fun presentation that we had done at Christmas by making a sausage wreath out of cocktail sausages and that buttery, flaky, Vienna-style pastry used to make croissants. The bow was a red pepper that underwent M-D’s surgical skills and the bowl in the middle held Dijon mustard for dipping. It seemed to be well appreciated since it disappeared at a rapid rate of knots (is that a nautical term?).

Our starter for the meal was a combination of Millefeuille de Pintade au Foie de Canard and Roulades de Jambon au Foie de Canard en Gelée au Sauternes. We get these (as you can see from the links) from an excellent supplier called Godard in the Perigord region of France. Washed down with a glass of Château Haut-Theulet Monbazillac 2002 (the colour of golden straw), this was a perfect starter for a great meal.

For the main course, we repeated a dish that had served us well at Christmas – Beef Wellington. This time, there were no problems with timing as there were on Christmas Eve. I correctly guessed that our guests would be happy with meat that was less cooked than I had done at Christmas and “the beast” arrived on the table in good time and in good shape and was helped down with a glass or three of Château de Sarenceau Saint-Emilion 2000 which we served right through the rest of the meal. And then came the famous Trou Normand – sorbet with calvados poured over the top – to help our digestion (I think!).

After the cheeses, we served Gâteau Creusois with M-D’s hand made Chocolate Mousse which is actually very simple to make, but very tasty. And another pleasant evening ended with happy campers all round. Cooking is fun, but the joy it brings to others is even better!