Cocktails!

My friend Frank and I hosted a cocktail party a week or so ago. I was lumbered with providing food for eight, which turned out to be not very tricky. My first idea was to go with super-poncy, tiny little canapés, but soon afterwards I realised that a) it wouldn't fill people up (which needed to be done, considering the potency of some of the cocktails served) and b) nobody would like them anyway. So I just went for some good old tried-and-tested faves.

Interesting fact: at Frank's work they spell it like this --> 'coktail' so as not to offend people.

So! I started by making some tzatiki.

This was what I was least pleased with. I mixed some greek yoghurt with some crushed garlic and mint and coriander, and some cucumber that I had grated. It was yummy in terms of garlic and mint, but I didn't like the grated cucumber. It just had a funny stringy texture. I have recipes that call for it to be grated, but I much prefer it chopped.
More food...

These are my friend's photos... She has an amazing camera. Frank's mum made her famous hoummous, and I made cucumber sandwiches. Not traditional, but eveyone seems to like them. The prawns in the glass above are 'King Prawns with Garlic and Parsley', from Marks and Spencer - I bought them on a whim but they turned out to be really delicious. Good and garlic-y.

I also put out a plate of ham, some peppers and carrots, radishes (which nobody ate but they looked pretty), pitta bread and baguette, some yummy mozzarella with basil dressing, and some hot chorizo in red wine, which was delicious but nobody took a picture of it. I had it in Spain at a tapas bar and I thought it might be hard to recreate, but it turned out to be super-easy - literally just chorizo, and red wine. Simple.  Though of course a kitchen in England in January will never be the same as outside in June in Spain.

Earlier in the day I made meringues:

...and because they were a bit funny, I made Eton Mess. Really, really yummy. You can never go wrong with raspberries, cream, meringue and vanilla.

We played Who's In The Hat (best game ever) and I had possibly one too many G&Ts. Then everyone stayed over and in the morning I made pancakes.

I couldn't resist.

So, on a scale of one to yummy, I'd have to say about a 12. It was good food (though that might be the gin talking), but I made the tzatziki wrong and there wasn't enough ponce for my liking.


PS I only got one picture of a fancy cocktail, and it's not a very good one, but I can't have a post about a cocktail party without even ONE picture of a cocktail... So here it is.