Nine for dinner

One of my favourite occupations is cooking. I have about two metres of cookery books in my cupboard, mostly on Mediterranean food. Some recipes I know by heart, but now and then I like to make something new, that's when my cookery books come into view.

This weekend we had nine for dinner. My parents, brother, little nephew and my aunt and uncle from Wahlwiller came to visit.

After the photos my uncle and aunt had seen on my blog, they decided it was time to see our garden for real. I was a bit apprehensive. Afraid the garden and food would not live up to their expecations. Besides being a good gardener, my uncle is a keen cook as well. I had to do my utmost  ;-)!

As our outdoor kitchen does not have an oven and only an old camping stove with two burners, we decided on a BBQ. It would be accompanied by several Mediterranean salads. I made marinated aubergines from the Ottolenghi cookbook, tabouleh, a pastasalad with pesto, rocket & Mozarella and Tzatiki. As a desert we had Eton mess (the Delia way).

I started baking the meringues and grilling the aubergines on friday afternoon, so that I could finish everything off on saturday. I decorated our little garden house, picked flowers to put on the table and tried to make it all look inviting. The sun did the rest!

It turned out to be a lovely summer evening and I believe everyone enjoyed himself. Even my nine year old nephew, who could play table tennis on our dinner table afterwards!

Dear P & I once again thank you for your visit and the lovely basket with homemade treats! We already started on the elderflower cordial, quince jelly and the gooseberry/elderflower jam. They taste simply delicious! I would love to have the recipes!!!

Wish you all a happy weekend!

Lieve groet, Madelief