spreading jam

As part of our initiative to raise money for charity, Jam has been holding ‘Come Dine With Me’ nights. They raise £100 a time, and are rather a lot of fun! For mine, I had Jammers Flo, Tom, Lucy, Michelle and Michelle’s other half Rob over… but what did I cook?

The Menu

Chicken, bacon and Stilton roulades with new potatoes and veg
Summer fruits Pavlova
Cheese board (I didn’t actually cook this, obviously!)

Here is how it went down…

I decided to start cooking early – so I wasn’t a mad, flailing-armed nut case by the time everyone arrived – so giddy with excitement about the mess I was about to create in my kitchen, I headed off to the shops.

Firstly I set about making the meringue base for my Pavlova which I have never done before, but must say I was impressed with my skills. I then started prepping the stilton mix for the chicken and realised I had forgotten two of the most vital things, cream and bacon! So off to the shops for a second time and a quick panic call to my mother to check what kind of bacon I should get (I’ve cooked this dish a million times before, yet for some reason I couldn’t remember!)

With prep finished I set about re-arranging my flat to extend the dining table out in all its double-extending glory; it sort of felt like one of those mental arithmetic games where you have to fit all the puzzle pieces into a square… That done I started on some of the wine I had bought, it was disgusting – luckily Flo arrived with a better bottle! After all my guests had arrived – some slightly inebriated already and one late, Tom to be exact, – we sat down to dine. Soon, the scintillating conversation turned to Second Life (that digital playground) and how Michelle’s avatar (which was created for research, honestly!) had a before the watershed moment on it!

Unfortunately the wine was so good that only half way through dinner I remembered that I was going to be writing this and people would probably rather look at pictures than read me ramble on. I have no pictures of the group as a whole, most of the guests, the main dish in a presentable fashion and cheese board! But please enjoy these out of focus images I managed to capture of my evening of fun, full belly’s and sore heads in the morning…Enjoy!