Saturday, November 4, 2006

Happy Birthday Donna!

Posted by MANDI at 10:18 AM
Yesterday was my good friend, Donna's birthday. We have known each other for close to 20 years but have been been friends for the last 10. We actually ended up being friends when we were posted to the same school here in Red Dirt Central and have both ended up back here because of our husbands and their current jobs. We decided that we should do something nice for her birthday. There's not much worse than having your birthday on a weekday, at home with two small kids, in a town a thousand miles away from friends and family. She decided on an afternoon tea with lots of nibblie-style finger food and champagne (now you know why we ended up friends after all that time LOL!). The kids could all play and we could enjoy the afternoon before husbands arrived and then we would order Chinese for dinner. What a great plan. What a great afternoon. And what a lovely evening.


Some pics of the party table.



Clockwise from centre top:

Olive and Parmesan Palmiers, Mascarpone Butterfly Cakes, Curried Egg Sandwiches, Fruit Platter, Cheese Platter, Choc Caramel Tarts, Basil Dip, and in the centre is Sushi.





A close up with the Choc Caramel Tarts in the foreground. (I really just like this picture!)


You'd never guess there were only 4 grown-up guests to the afternoon tea from the amount of food. And yes, we did manage to consume vast quantities of it, although the husbands and the second shift of guests did assist when they arrived!
We enjoyed Watermelon Champagne Spritzers as our drink of choice through the afternoon. I forgot to take photos of them but here is the recipe, which originally came from an episode of Better Homes and Gardens a couple of years ago. They taste like summer, all zingy and bubbly and fresh and ginger-y! Yum!
Watermelon Champagne Spritzers
Remove the skin from a quarter of a watermelon. Cut the watermelon into cubes. Place the cubes in a mixing bowl and ad half a cup of green ginger wine. Give them a gentle stir and then let them sit for15 minutes or so to soak up the wine. Place the watermelon cubes in a single layer onto a baking tray. Cover with plastic wrip and place in the freezer for a couple of hours.
To serve: Place a few cubes of watermelon into each well-chilled champagne flute. Top each flute with pink champagne (or sparkling wine if you want to get fussy about origins of wine and the correct names and labels).

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