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Dinner Party 3

August 12th was dinner party 3, set in 1976. Mum and dad had come back from the Bahamas a while ago, and settled in Sheffield...and bought a freezer (which dad still has), and a Good Housekeeping freezer cookbook.


In the dinner party planner, mum seemed to experiment with lots of recipes from this book, so my idea was to cook practically everything beforehand, and then on the day I would only need to cook the main course, and everything else would come out of the freezer to be warmed through or defrosted. It worked, in that I was able to go out and meet a friend for coffee, and not be agitating about time, so well done, mum!
We had Cosmopolitans as a cocktail (and chicken crackling to nibble on, which I know mum wouldn't have done, but it's so nice I didn't want to just throw the skin away!) We moved onto salmon mousse and melba toast (again, but new guests, so I haven't yet repeated anything for anyone) with shaped butter. Main course was Chicken Marengo, (which is in my handwriting, with mum’s notes in…I think I missed some stuff out?) duchesse potatoes and peas and corn: sherry used again in the main course, but we were going on package holidays to Spain, and sherry was part of the fun.
Dessert was choco-liqueurs, yum, and cheese and biscuits for the guest who was allergic to raw egg in food, but fitting the instant dessert ethos of the freezer idea. And then floater coffees
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