Make Your Party Guests Cook

While I love to entertain friends at home and lay out an impressive menu that would make each of them go “WOW!”, the time and energy left after a long week of work don’t allow such a showcase (and admittedly, a dash of laziness thrown in).  Before taking off to Barcelona last month, I felt a need to round up the year with a few good friends but with an extremely hectic final week, to throw an elaborate dinner party would be impossible -even for those highly ambitious ones.

The preparations began the night before with making a tomato base for tomorrow’s pasta.  Grated tomatoes, as ripe as I could get them, and chopped onions slow cooked for 40 minutes with olive oil, left refrigerated till the next day.  At lunch, I squeezed in between work to hurry to the market, securing the freshest clams available.  By the time work was over, it was 1 hour before guests were due to arrived.  I quickly chopped up red chilli and some onion while the pasta was boiling.  By the time the guests came, I had just set the table and arranged fresh flowers in place.

Throughout the night, we had three rounds of pasta, all made differently by every ‘chef ‘and one serving of clams with creatively and deliciously cooked up by the last guest to use up all that’s left of the ingredients.  There was even a tiny competitive spirit in the air with each ‘chef’ wanting to garner more compliments than the previous! We alternated between giggling, drinking, eating and cooking.  For dessert, I already picked up from my favourite cafe, Bon Bon’s, their fabulous creation, the Lychee cake which is always a winner.  And finally before we bade our goodbyes, everyone had a good cup of coffee, which I made my guests once again work to manually grind their own beans!

I didn’t go to bed worn out that night.