And The Winner Is…

This is the post that I’ve heard on the grapevine is the most anticipated yet: the winner of our Come Dine with Us sessions! If you’ve been following along the way, you’ll know that four friends have each hosted an evening, cooking a three-course dinner for our friends, and then voted on each others’ evenings! Food was, of course, top priority, but we also counted hosting skills, entertainment and ‘extras’! If I had to split these votes, I’d say the best evening would be a combination of Stacy’s hosting skills, which included buying matching trays especially for the occasion, Jemma’s ‘extras’, (After Eights, A plastic ring, etc!) and Donna’s entertainment, Guess the Person! The food I’d choose again would be Donna’s starter of asparagus, Stacy’s Stroganoff main and Jemma’s rich and creamy Lime Cheesecake for dessert. Can I add in Donna’s cheese-plate at the end of the meal, especially on behalf of Stacy?!

I’ll blog each individual menu with recipes later, but feel free to have a look back and create your own version – each was really delicious and I’d highly recommend them. We’re such different cooks, yet all the meals were very good, the evenings even better! Some of us stick firmly to a recipe, while others have never cooked three courses for anyone other than our OH and family before. Some were nervous beforehand, others worried about where everyone would sit. We’re such a very different lot, with common values (this sounds a bit like our school ‘mission’!, so I’ll stop there I think!), the main one being our love of food, eating and friendships!

Kate had kindly collated each week’s score for us and also devised a certificate, so the results were revealed on our Best of the Best night last Monday, held at Donna’s as we chose her main course! We each took one of the courses from our own evening: We had Mini Toad in the Hole amuse-bouche followed by Smoked Mackerel pate from me; Trout with Horseradish Crème Fraiche from Donna; and TWO puddings, Sticky Toffee Pudding from Stacy and Jemma’s Cheesecake. It was really lovely all mucking in, preparing, washing up and luckily, Donna’s kitchen is the perfect size for doing all that!

Between puddings, the winner was announced, after a little trouble reading the certificate, as Kate had, very thoughtfully, printed it from bottom to top so we could unravel each person step by step.

In Fourth place, with 23.5 points is…              Jemma

In joint Second place, with 24 points are…     Donna and Stacy

In First place, with 27 points is…                   Merlotti

Hurrah! And so endeth our meals. Well, not quite! We’re all in agreement that we should really continue, but that it would be less stressful and more fun if we all brought a course, and, needless to say, didn’t score. So, the new rota has been drawn-up and the first of the collaborations begins two weeks on Monday. Can’t wait girls!