Birthday Party

Happy Birthday!

Who says you can only have a picnic in summer? I refuse to be dictated to by the seasons! Maybe the rain, but not the seasons. Sure the weather may still be cold, the wind may be chilly, but bunting, red and white gingham, baguettes and baskets all say picnic to me.

O.K, the picnic in question was held in my backyard. I'm fond of running water and toilet availability. And the cooking was done in my oven, and the food was fresh, not packed in baskets for hours.... but a picnic just the same.

I thought about food that seems especially picnicky...... and discounted sandwiches. I have never found a great gfree bread, and wanted something more exciting. I decided on a menu of homemade chicken liver parfait, stuffed buns aka Muffaleta, buttermilk fried chicken, potato salad, various nibbly things like olives, dolmades, stuffed mini eggplants, cheese platter, and Cherry Ripe Cheesecake for Birthday Cake.

Now, what's a party without games? And of course my game revolves around food! The game was 'Salad Surprise' and contestants had to examine a selection of classic salads depicted as skewers, with the one to name the most the winner. How many can you guess? I had so much fun making these little lovelies; boiling and peeling quail eggs, cutting out little carrot flowers,making parmesan tuilles, drilling holes through toasted gfree croutons, etc. But of course they were practical and part of the meal too, not just for decoration.

We had: Waldorf salad, Caprese salad, Coleslaw, Ceasar salad, Fruit salad, Potato salad, and of course -Three Bean salad!

How did you go?

The guests were all asked to bring along a thermos containing a drink of choice for sharing and what a selection! There was rich, strong coffee, mulled wine, licorice legs tea from T2, and many more.
We also washed down our meal with a fun,fizzy raspberry sparkling wine and homemade cherry lemonade.

I combined old fashioned lemon barley syrup with soda water, frozen cherries, mint sprigs and lemon wedges into liquid lovliness,a yummy and refreshing drink that wasn't sickly sweet. I have a real hate against all types of soft drink, my drink of chioce is plain old soda water, served very cold.

Now the best part, the Cherry Ripe Cheesecake.

I can’t give quantities as I kind of made it up as I went along, but I can give you ingredient lists.

I made the base using a packet of gluten free chocolate biscuits, desiccated coconut, glace cherries and coconut oil.

The topping consists of cream cheese, lactose free cream (I had to draw the line somewhere), sugar, frozen cherries, eggs, cherry wine for flavour, and black cherry jam.

I decided to bite the bullet and just take lactase tablets as I knew what to expect from a standard recipe and ran out of time to experiment with lactose free options.

The chocolate sauce has Lindt 85%, which on reflection was a mistake as the coco-iness was overpowering. The 70% is still lactose free and would have tasted better. Also used was l-free cream, sugar and some more cherry wine.

I pressed the base ingredients onto the bottom of the lined pan, and then mixed the rest of the ingredients together, kind of marbling the jam through the mix with a knife. Some leftover frozen cherries were popped on top for looks.

The whole thing was baked in a 170* oven for about 1 ½ hours or until just slightly wobbling when you give the pan a quick shake. Cool down and refrigerate.

To cut the moist yumminess you will need to have a jug of hot water at the ready and dip your knife in-between slices.

So readers, how do you like to celebrate your birthday?