A Good Friday

 Knowing that we had visitors for lunch, I was up early. I didn't need to be, but I like to be prepared. After the usual coffee, porridge, and morning ablutions I started on my mental list of things to get done. Ellie was up early and immensely helpful throughout the morning. She was very excited that she would be seeing Cousin Louis later.

The first item only took a couple of minutes, but it was to open up the new kitchen table to its full extent - we would be using it in anger for the first time today. It was satisfying to see how much space it gave us... though we didn't have sufficient chairs to accommodate us all. As we had a buffet planned, this wasn't a problem as some could sit in the tub chairs at the other end of the room.

I started preparing the food. Salad vegetables were chopped and sliced, sealed, and stored in the fridge (which would have been much more successful if I had remembered to get them out and serve them at lunch, instead of leaving them in the fridge until we spotted them when clearing away later). I then made the sauce for some sticky chicken bites. This was a sweet sauce made with white wine vinegar, honey, sweet chilli sauce, ketchup, brown sugar, and soy sauce. I then prepared the "dredge" for the chicken pieces. Our guests arrived - Denise, Emma, Remi, Louis, Becky, Kim, and Jon.

As the morning progressed, everything came together. The chicken pieces were dredged and fried, the sauce reduced and started to thicken, and the chicken was mixed in and served. Southern-styled chicken was baked, pizzas were baked, and salmon and prawns in white wine and cream sauce were prepared as some linguine bubbled away. Everything was served up and we all tucked in. The various dishes seemed very popular and there was little left at the end of the afternoon.

Zoe arrived at the end of her shift, but in time to see everyone before they left. Eventually, the gathering broke up. Denise and the gang left to check into their holiday park in Pagham for the weekend. Zoe and Ellie left soon after. We loaded the dishwasher for the second or third time, then went to the Orangery for a quiet hour. When the dishwasher was finished, we stirred and finished clearing up and put on a final load in the dishwasher.

That was it. We were done for the day. It had been a really Good Friday. Now we have a quiet Saturday followed by hosting the immediate family for Sunday.