Everyday is somebody's birthday

Someone's born on each and every day
One day it's yours, and one day it's mine
Last month it was mine and so we say
"Happy birthday, Elise, Elise,
Happy, happy birthday, you're our friend"

"That is very kind of you, what a lovely thing to do
and I hope this day will never end."

And now, some photos of me being silly on my birthday - as it my wont to do.







And in case you were wondering, the lipstick is MAC 'Girl about town' and the nail polish is Revlon 'Fuschia Fever'

Cannelons, not Cannelloni

I've been writing this post for about 2 weeks and keep getting interrupted because I know you're all just dying to know about the rest of my dinner party.

Anyway, here are the entrées -

CHICKEN CANNELONS

INGREDIENTS. - Chicken croquette mixture
rough puff-paste
egg
breadcrumbs
fat
parsley

METHOD. - Roll out the paste as thinly as possible, and cut it into 1 1/4 or 1 1/2 inch squares.
Place a little of the chicken mixture in the centre of each square, and roll up rather tightly.
Coat them carefully with egg and breadcrumbs, fry in hot fat until lightly browned, then drain well, and serve garnished with sprigs of crisply-fried parsley.

TIME. - To fry, about 5 minutes. SUFFICIENT, allow 2 cannelons to each person.

CHICKEN CROQUETTES.

INGREDIENTS. - 6 to 8 oz. of cold chicken or fowl (boned)
2 oz. of cooked ham or tongue
1/4 of a pint of stock
1 oz. of butter
1 oz. of flour
1 tablespoonful of cream or milk
1 teaspoonful of lemon-juice
6 button mushrooms
1 truffle
salt and pepper
egg
breadcrumbs
fat (these last three ingredients are for if you actually want to make the croquettes)

METHOD. - Chop the chicken and ham or tongue finely, cut the mushrooms and truffle into small pieces. As I had several people who don't eat pork I just used more chicken. Also truffles are worth their weight in gold here so I used more mushrooms and covered them in truffle oil. Sue me.
Melt the butter, fry the flour without browning, add the stock, and cook well. Stir in the chicken, ham or tongue, cream or milk, lemon-juice, mushrooms and truffle, season with salt and pepper, and turn on a plate to cool.
Make into cork-shaped croquettes, coat carefully with egg and breadcrumbs, and fry until lightly browned in hot fat.

TIME. - About 1 hour. SUFFICIENT for about 6 persons.

This recipe is very delicious. I think it works better though if you make sausage roll sized cannelons, because it is less fiddle than the 1 inch ones... would be great for an afternoon tea.

Fly away on my Zephyr

zephyr (plural zephyrs)
1. a light wind from the west
2. any light refreshing wind; a gentle breeze
3. any thing of fine, soft, or light quality, especially fabric

Strangely, I cannot find zéphire(s) in the dictionary so I'm just going with zephyr, and considering cheese zéphires are made with whipped cream it probably fits. I thought they were a touch boring on their own but served on garlic toasts with a bit of tomato, quite yum.


CHEESE ZÉPHIRES.

INGREDIENTS. - 3 heaped tablespoonfuls of Parmesan cheese
1 oz. of gelatine
1/2 a pint of cream
1/2 a pint of milk
cayenne
salt

METHOD. - Soak the gelatine in the milk for about 1/2 an hour, then stir it over the fire until it is dissolved.
Let it cool, add the cheese, the cream previously stiffly whipped, and seasoning to taste.
Turn into oval fluted zéphire moulds, set on ice until firm, then unmould, and serve garnished with chopped aspic jelly and shredded truffle and pimiento.

TIME. - About 4 hours. SUFFICIENT for 6 or 7 persons.

And I'm not sure what a zéphire mould is either, I just used a round cupcake pan to get some cute little domes.

The devil is in the detail

Angels on Horseback and Devils on Horseback - which is which? You guess. Angels on Horseback are actually a 'savoury' in Mrs Beeton which would therefore come at the end of the meal. But seeing as we are not really in the habit of eating more after the sweets, I decided to make them as an Hors d'œuvre instead.



"ANGELS ON HORSEBACK"

INGREDIENTS. - 12 oysters
12 small thin slices of bacon
12 small round croûtes of bread
1/2 a teaspoon of finely-chopped shallot
1/2 a teaspoon of finely-chopped parsley
a little lemon juice
Krona pepper

METHOD. - Beard the oysters, trim the bacon, cutting each piece just large enough to roll round an oyster, season with Krona pepper, sprinkle on a little shallot and parsley.
Lay an oyster on each, add a few drops of lemon-juice, roll up tightly, and secure the bacon in position with a large pin.
Fry in a frying-pan or bake in a hot oven just long enough to crisp the bacon (further cooking would harden the oyster), remove the pins and serve on the croûtes.

TIME. - About 20 minutes. SUFFICIENT for 8 or 9 persons.

If you are planning on serving these at a party, baking needs less attention allowing you to enjoy more time with your guests. I left my pins (or toothpick in this case) in for ease of serving and eating when hors d'œuvring.

"DEVILS ON HORSEBACK."

INGREDIENTS. - 12 prunes
12 small thin slices of bacon
12 small round croûtes of bread
1/2 a teaspoon of finely-chopped shallot
1/2 a teaspoon of finely-chopped parsley
Krona pepper

METHOD. - Trim the bacon, cutting each piece just large enough to roll round an oyster, season with Krona pepper, sprinkle on a little shallot and parsley.
Lay a prune on each, roll up tightly, and secure the bacon in position with a large pin.
Fry in a frying-pan or bake in a hot oven just long enough to crisp the bacon and warm the prune, remove the pins and serve on the croûtes.

TIME. - About 20 minutes. SUFFICIENT for 8 or 9 persons.

These are also pretty tasty, but remember they still have a pip in them (being dried plums) so have a little bowl or something to receive the pips.

The secret to staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly, and lie about your age.

Well, I had a birthday recently. And for said birthday I had a dinner party of almost Herculean standards. Well for me anyway. It was a "How to host a Murder" Party set at a movie premiere in 1936.

So naturally I go way overboard with the cooking but it was all in good fun.


Here is my table all beautifully set. I polished the silver myself as it's so hard to get good staff these days. I even measured my table to ensure everyone had the required 24". It required 1 extra leaf in my table, just to seat 8. And an appropriate use flowers to follow the colour scheme. I think it's pretty if I do say so myself.

So to a brief overview of the menu then.

Hors d'œuvres
Oysters au Naturel
Cheese Zephires
Angels on Horseback
Devils on Horseback

Soup
Clear Julienne Soup

Entrées
Chicken Cannelons
Salmon Mousse
Rabbit Rillet

Main
Roast Beef
Roast Potatoes confit in Duck fat
Asparagus
Carrots
Peas
Gravy

Sweets
Raspberry Cream

Cake
Ingrid's Chocolate cake

And now on to some recipes:


OYSTERS AU NATUREL.

There are many ways of dressing oysters, either hot or cold, but only one way of serving them, "au naturel," which is considered the most popular hor's dœurve. Only the best kinds, natives - Whitstable or Colchester oysters, should be served "au naturel," i.e., raw. All the need, after being opened, is to be placed on the upper shell with a little of the liquor; they are then ranged on a dish, garnished with sprigs of fresh parsley, and if possible, surrounded with shaved ice.

Some thin slices of buttered brown bread, and quarters of lemon are handed round at the same time; also Nepaul or cayenne pepper.

I have to confess I didn't check to see if my oysters were Whitstable or Colchester but they were yummy none the less. I substitued those garlic toast biscuits instead of the buttered brown bread.