Happy Birthday Sonia

 Happy Birthday Sonia.  You are a truly remarkable lady, a great friend and neighbour.   Thank you for inviting us to share your birthday at what is a personally very difficult time for you.  We were just happy to be able to be there with you today and boy did you put on an amazing spread - shame really that we had visitors in the evening and we had to be careful how much we consumed!

I had made Sonia a throw to keep her legs warm in the winter.  She likes handmade items, previously I gave her a rug I had made.  This throw was lovely and soft and made with thick wool.  I managed to keep the cats off of it and as soon as it was finished put it in a bag for safekeeping so that it was about as cat hair free as it could be.  I hope she will use it, if not it can be placed over one of the fascinating pieces of furniture she has in her home.  I love her home - it is full of interesting bits and pieces including that bloody candlestick that she bought on one of our shopping trips which I look at and always think I should have bought!!!

After I had prepared all the food for the evening I set about getting some of the Christmas presents wrapped - even though we aren't really doing much we have several Christmas celebrations ahead of us.  A Christmas Day with my sister, a Christmas Day with Lillian and her friends and then Christmas Day with Mum and Lilian.  That is quite a lot of gifts of no more than 5 Euros!!!  It is, however, challenging and fun to find something of that value which is a worthwhile gift.  For our present game this evening our gifts were all culinary from Lidl and actually went down a treat.

We had a fabulous evening with Liselotte and John.  If I do say so myself my meal was an absolute triumph - so tasty and colourful.  The faff with the Labneh was worth every second as it produced the most amazing creamy curd which was then flavoured with lemon zest and juice, olive oil and home made za'atar - it was the star of the show so I now need to get myself and cheese straining bag to make it again.

I have the Muhamarrah off to a tea and the salad was fresh and vibrant.  We started with the two dips and some homemade flatbreads and then had the main of shakshouka with the salad and lebanese potatoes which Liselotte's John particularly liked.

John had prepared two different puddings, a pear crumble or a lemon fool both of which met with approval.

After eating we played the present game - house rules which meant that everyone got at least one gift - the winner getting several - as I said earlier ours were all culinary and Liselotte's John was ecstatic to receive the chilli oil and garlic oil which he decided he would mix as he has been looking for chilli garlic oil!!!

We ended the evening with a game of cards, always good fun - we are glad to have found another couple that enjoy playing as much as we do.