Family Fun

Family Fun

We invited the Greek God(zilla)’s two sisters over for dinner on Saturday night.

Now, I always get a bit nervous about this as Yiayia is usually the only person who cooks for us and everything she makes is really really tasty.

Apart from the offal soup that comes out every Easter, which in all fairness could be absolutely delicious but I just can’t bring myself to go there.

The bar has been set with regards to cooking for the family and I can not reach it, even with a leg-up from the Greek God(zilla).

So while expectations were certainly managed in regards to the standard of cooking, I still did not want to serve up a plate of inedible mush.

I decided on an Italian themed menu after spending a few hours with my blogging bestie Richmond Mummy, and her divine Italian father a couple of weeks before.  RM’s dad also happens to be a very talented Chef, who ran a restaurant that featured in the highly prestigious Michelin Guide for twenty odd years and he very kindly shared one of his favourite recipes with me.

The biggest mistake I made at the Steak/Off was starting on the vino too early, so this time I made sure to just sip water until after Zachy was in bed and the starter was on the table.

I went for a very basic starter of parma ham and bruschetta.  It was fine, but you can’t really go wrong with opening a packet of ham and setting it out on a big plate.

I prepared the bruschetta mix earlier in the day but realised we were out of balsamic, so had to substitute with red wine vinegar at the last-minute instead and it was fine.  Although in all honestly, it would be quite a feat to mess up chopped tomatoes on bread.

The main course was Nonno’s Pollo alla Cacciatora, the recipe for which you can find here on Richmond Mummy’s blog served with mashed potatoes and green beans.

I prepared much of this dish in the morning, so just had to pop it in the oven about 30 minutes before we wanted to eat it.

grenglish.co.uk chicken in tomatoes

However, I did something a bit wrong with the pre-heating of the oven or in the prep stages, as it took about an hour for the chicken to completely cook through.

I left the Greek God(zilla) to keep topping up everyone’s glasses though and hoped they would not notice the slight delay.

I made the mash using my new potato ricer, which really does make the world of difference in texture and time.  If you are a mash lover, then I highly recommend buying one.  Makes a big mess though and is an arse to clean.  Think of a giant sized garlic press…

Once again, it was ok.  I think everyone was ravenous by this point, and quite tipsy… so I got away with it. 

The grand finale was Nigella’s chocolate and hazelnut cheesecake, which is so quick and easy to knock up but was undoubtedly the star of the show.  I found the recipe in the Nigellissima cook book that I cleverly suggested one of the Greek God(zilla)’s sisters’ buy him for Christmas.

Nigella's Nutella Cheesecake

nigella.com

So there you have it, a very civilised affair indeed…

It would have stayed that way too, had someone not put the theme tune to Flashdance on *laughs mischieviously*

As soon as the first line kicks in “First, when there’s nothing but a slow glowing dream…” BB is up on her feet.

It is such an instinctual movement, it is almost like she has been hypnotised by Irene Cara’s soothing voice.

She hears the music, closes her eyes, feels the rhythm…

 

and

then

this

happens…

IMG_0271

IMG_0303

IMG_0305

IMG_0304

EVERY. TIME.

So there you have it, just an average Saturday night of family fun.

Speaking of which, Grenglish has made it to the finals of the MAD Blog Awards in the Best Family Fun category (see what I did there?!) so if you would like to cast a vote my way then please just click here.

*****

You can follow me on Twitter @smudgerellafind me on Facebook,
and on Pinterest as Grenglish

 

 

 

8 Comments

  1. Noo
    March 14, 2013 / 1:22 PM

    OMG I want that cheesecake! Yum! xx

    • Grenglish
      Author
      March 14, 2013 / 2:03 PM

      so so easy to make Noo! Think the recipe is on her eebsite too x

  2. March 14, 2013 / 9:14 PM

    Genius post. I deliberately clicked the link because it said Family Fun 😉

    • Grenglish
      Author
      March 23, 2013 / 7:10 AM

      I feel so sneaky 🙂

  3. March 22, 2013 / 9:50 PM

    Brilliant. I so want to come to yours for dinner and erm chair dancing! Pretty please *books ticket, votes a million times x

    • Grenglish
      Author
      March 23, 2013 / 7:10 AM

      Yes of course! You are ALWAYS welcome here, any time xx

  4. March 22, 2013 / 9:55 PM

    Bums I can only vote once but you got mine mwah x

    • Grenglish
      Author
      March 23, 2013 / 7:10 AM

      Yippppeee, thank you lovely xx

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