Le Sac Magique

Today was to be a very special day of celebration.  Our 23 reunion was to celebrate a 25th wedding anniversary, two 50th birthdays and a myriad of milestones which have been missed over the last 13 years.  We wanted to do something special and had thought about a number of restaurants but in the end thought something at ours would be good and had decided to ask Ali to cater for us as she had done such a good job for my 60th and our 30th wedding anniversary.  We had settled on a sort of Lebanese menu but sadly Ali was involved in a car accident and was in hospital and so I decided that at such short notice there was nothing left but for John and I to do it ourselves which was a bit stressful.  

We had fizz on arrival and then our starters...

Roasted Pepper and Walnut (Muhammara), Hot Cheese (Tirokafteri), Lemon Feta (Labneh)
Mini Pittas
Armenian Sausages Pastourmas, Loukanikas
Olives
Chickpea Salad (Balela)
Courgette Fritters (Ejjeh Kousa)

During the break between courses I had found all the photographs I could of our group taken on various trips and various fancy dress occasions which kept people busy and laughing for quite a while before the next course which was spicy baked eggs aka ShakShuka

After this we played ShitHead to ascertain the order in which each couple went and changed into their fancy dress costumes for Iconic Couples...

Cheryl and Frank changed first and they came as Clarice and Hannibal from Silence of the Lambs!

Next came John and I (and Scooby).  John was Shaggy and I was Velma from Scooby Doo and we had a blow up Scooby just in case people didn't recognise us!  Good old Shein they delivered our clothing in time and at very little expense!

Finally Sally and Tommy who came as Wilma and Fred Flintstone!

A fab effort made by everyone and thankfully the weather had cooled somewhat so I was ok in my polo neck - in fact as the night went on we had some pretty heavy but welcome rain.

Our main course was

Halloumi Salad
Meat Flatbreads (Lahm Bi Ajeen)
Prawn Flatbreads (Prawn Manakish
Rice and Lentils (Mujadara)
Lebanese Potatoes (Batata Harra)

plus anything not eaten from the previous courses!!!

We then played a number of games including The Salad Bowl and Sac Magique which was their version of the Present Game and was hilarious with some pretty mind blowing gifts being won and lost.

We had a brief break for the pudding which was a passion fruit (from my garden) mango and lemon cream and which was absolutely delicious.

Oh lord what a laugh we had.  Who knew that the tat we had purchased from Jumbos could provide so much fun.  There was everything from a religious red plastic cross with battery operated candle inside (which flashed) to a pair of bunny ears with air pumps (watch the video at the end).

We eventually pulled stumps at about 2.00am and the 23 staggered off back home.  Apologies to anyone that they may have disturbed in the process - I think we all forget how loud we can get when alcohol gets involved.

It took us until 3.00am to get the house into some sort of shape but I think the evening was deemed to be a success - we packed up the remaining food into a coolbox so that the 23 could take it down onto the beach with them later today so there was no waste which was great.

Anyway the video shows Frank demonstrating the bunny ears that I had won but donated to him...