It's my party!

[racheld]

GORGEOUS!!!! Everything looks simply scrumptious. All your salads look as if they are straight from a Spring market. And lugging a ton of Brie up all those stairs--that's a dedicated cook.

Everything is just breathtaking---and it's HARD to gasp and drool all at once.

Wow. And wow.

rachel

[Pan]

[...] People were happy and that's the most important thing!

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I'm sure they were!

It's amazing that you did all that cooking on your birthday, a day when most people would rather have someone else cook for them.

[KatieLoeb]

Happy belated Birthday!

Can I come to your next party? Everything looks scrumptious!

[Chufi]

It's amazing that you did all that cooking on your birthday, a day when most people would rather have someone else cook for them.

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I think that's an interesting cultural difference. In the Netherlands, it is actually pretty common to invite people to your house on your birthday, and provide food and drink (which can range from 5 bowls of crisps and 2 bowls of peanuts and lots of beer when you're a student, or risotto gratin for 22 when you're me )

When we were on our roadtrip in the US, and eating out every night, we were very suprised that almost every other night, there was a birthday dinner going on in the restaurant! Not to mention the birthday lunches we witnessed in between!

[Pan]

Do the guests bring gifts?

[ludja]

Do the guests bring gifts?

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Don't know if it is all over Europe, but in Austria it is very traditional for guests to bring fresh cut flowers. Also, there, the birthday person typically hosts dinner for everyone at their house, or they are the host if the group goes out to dinner at a restaurant.

[Chufi]

Do the guests bring gifts?

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Don't know if it is all over Europe, but in Austria it is very traditional for guests to bring fresh cut flowers. Also, there, the birthday person typically hosts dinner for everyone at their house, or they are the host if the group goes out to dinner at a restaurant.

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Oh yes gifts are very important. People make a wishlist beforehand. I gave mine to my husband and he told my friends.. and I got very lucky this year!

We do the fresh flowers also. They can be a bit of a nuisance for the hostess... if you are juggling food and drinks and coffee etc, the last thing you want to do is arrange several bunches of flowers! And it is considered bad form to leave the flowers in their wrapping paper until later.

[Chufi]

that looks great chufi!

if you don't mind me asking, what's the recipe for your onion confit custard?

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Well, now I have to admit I cheated a bit. The best thing would be to start out with real onion confit. But as I needed my oven for cakes and stuff, I had to make a quick confit on the stove (1.5 kilo of onions, very slowly cooked with olive oil, butter, marsala, and dried thyme for a couple of hours)

This I mixed with 6 eggs, a couple of handfuls of grated parmesan, and 350 ml. milk. Bake in a waterbath in a medium oven for 30 minutes.

This is a recipe by Anna Thomas and this is the way she makes it, but it's better with the real onion confit!