Happy Birthday Janet!

Janet turned 40 on the weekend, and we had a "Young at Heart" party for her.  This has kept me rather busy cooking over the past few weeks!!

We were expecting about 40 people, so I made lots of food - I cooked most of the finger food in advance and froze it.

We started with lots of different nibblies.....

Cheese, dip and crackers

Chippies!!

Cheezles!!

and of course some lollies!

The "healthy plate" - I made a big bowl of hommus. In fact, I am still eating it now :-)

Then we moved onto some hot finger food....

a pile of sausage rolls

I made 3 different kinds of meatballs - mexican beef, sweet chilli turkey & honey, rosemary lamb

I also made a batch of corn fritters, 2 kinds of puff pastry pizza scrolls (bbq meat lovers & roasted vegie), and Nigellas Ritzy Chicken Nuggets

We had a wonderful gang of waiters to help hand the food around - thanks kids!!

and because it was a "young at heart" party, we also had to play a few party games - we "pinned the nose on the koala" and also played "pass the parcel!!!

And then we had dinner!

I made 2 rather large lasagne's - one meaty and one vegie (I forgot to take a photo until after they were outside in the dark)

My Mum made this delicious salad, and there was also a potato salad from Chevonne, that I neglected to photograph! Garlic bread too!!

YUM!!

Then, there has to be some desert......

We did have a fruit platter, but we kind of left it in the fridge. oops

every kids party needs fairy bread!!

the jelly cups were a big hit!

Pam made these fairy cakes

and Janet specially requested chocolate crackles, so Chevonne & her kids made these snazzy looking ones!!

And of course, no birthday is complete without a cake..... Janet selected this one from the Women's Weekly Birthday Cake book, and I made it for her.....

HAPPY 40th BIRTHDAY!!!!

I am Slack - big suprise!

yeah yeah. So I have started the year with much slackness. My intentions to get up each morning and exercise have come to nothing. Yes, its only the 3rd of January, so I still have time to get myself into gear. I have to remind myself of all those winter mornings that I was up and out the door running when there was frost on the ground and I couldn't feel my fingers. Running at the moment would be positively delightful compared to that! So I just have to do it!

I have been playing around with some scrapbooking and have done a few pages now. Nothing too great, but I am learning how to manouvre around in photoshop, which is the hardest part.

We have a new addition to the family. George. We love him. The Lean Mean Fat Reducing Grilling Machine is what I am talking about. Revolutionising the kitchen! It means I will be enjoying a delicious mountain bread wrap filled with grilled capsicum, zucchinni & eggplant, with some fresh lettuce and my newly invented pesto-hommus. Delicious!

The pesto-hommus is quite something. And has nothing to do with George. It is my own invention, and I do not know why I didn't ever think to try it before. All it involves is throwing a large handful of fresh herbs into the whizzer when making the usual hommus (I use a can of chick peas, a big spoon of crushed garlic, a big squeeze of lemon juice, a drizzle of oil and a dollop of tahini (although I have been substituting macadamia paste recently - good move!). The herbs make it taste supremely good!

Another good addition to your basic hommus is some roasted capsicum. I tried this last week. Makes the hommus a lovely colour and adds a delicious sweetness!