Ok so that was how the play was received, but I thought I should give you a performer's eye view of the production. First though, the week before the play, I had one last little surprise to throw.
I had been organising Laura's baby shower since February, more or less, and the Saturday before the play Laura was intended to arrive at 2pm and get a surprise 'shower'. For the uninitiated a baby shower is a party where the mum to be gets showered with presents and traditionally get a hamper of baby goodies. Here is how it went down...
On Friday night I cooked sultana squares, a semi-healthy cake for people to nibble... Laura was diagnosed as diabetic during pregnancy so I tried to find a sweet recipe that wasn't loaded with sugar. This used a purée of dried apricots as a sweetener and was very nice. I also made guacamole. Me and Al hung out and I cooked intermittently; it was a really hot summer night, one where normally I'd have done anything possible to avoid the cooker and stay in the garden. I reorganised the layout of the kitchen dining room and tidied up the downstairs. I started to realise how much work, cooking in particular, I'd given myself to do - I'd been off work in the week with some kind of bug and was just getting my energy levels back (i'd felt really wiped out), but there was enough time I thought. I did take a short cut and chose not to make my own ginger beer, opting instead for shop bought... booo.
The saturday morning kicked off at 8am when cooking began in earnest. I made bacon koftas, patatas bravas, soda bread, little mini pizzas and sorted out the treasure hunt for Emma to play. Everything I cooked later went down very well and I got asked for the recipes. In fact they got munched so quickly that I didn't get photos of the blighters, but never mind! Emma, Laura's friend, arrived at 11am ish, although now I think there was some heavy traffic and she was late but as so was everyone else that morning it all worked out. Emma had brought a baby shower and streamers and balloons and began decorating and helping out. I was still cooking furiously when Cath and Teresa arrived (and brought their own chairs, bless them - good move, too). Between them and Emma they got the Baby Photo Gallery up on the wall, mounting each photo on some blue card on the wall in the extension. They also helped wrap presents. Claire arrived with her beautiful cake. All that was left was for me to sort out Emma's Treasure Hunt - I got in a pickle with the order of things. Bernadette (Nath's mum) arrived, and god love her had been the Mum in the situation bringing salad which she duly set about preparing and napkins and she'd brought coleslaw and all kinds of dip. If ever there is an emergency I reckon Bernadette is a good woman to have around, she strikes me as very capable!!!
At the last minute Vanessa (Lau's sister) and all of the rest of Nath's family; LC, Leah, Pippa, and Anne got held up by a combination of buses and bad traffic and husbands so when Nathan phoned he interpreted my squeaky voice correctly and calmly said "OK so we'll see you at half past 2 then, yeah?" - with Laura standing next to him on the phone we'd managed to delay proceedings without causing any suspicion. It even allowed Bernadette time to collect the family and park the car off our rd so that Laura wouldn't see her personalised number plate! Everything was set and we waited.
Alex, who'd been roped into blowing up balloons and who hadn't allowed in/near his own kitchen for the last 12 hours was getting hot and narky. Everyone was waiting. And it was boiling. Brad from next door was going from a drink with Al and Nath as he's on the same football team shouted down from the window - 'are you ready yet?'. It was 2.45. It was 3 o'clock. Are they coming? Perhaps something's come up... can anyone see their car?
Finally Al shouted that he could see them, they were walking down the road and Emma was on her scooter, so they were walking
slowly... Finally Al let them in, there was a delay then Laura's 'Oh my God!' and we all shouted 'SURPRISE!!!!!' as loudly as possible from the garden. Laura, bless her cottons, promptly burst into tears. After greeting everyone and cuddling Emma they boys made themselves scarse.
The afternoon followed in a swirl of heat and food and games and chatter. The food went down well, as I said. The games were fun too. We had to guess the number of Smarties in the baby's bottle (no one came close) and predictably Emma got to eat all the Smarties. We all played Guess the Baby's Name, as a kind of reverse sweepstake - my favourite was Kermit. And we played Smell the Nappy. Yes, you read that correctly. I had four nappies and filled them with monstrous looking fillings that people had to guess at by smelling and licking if necessary! The fillings were guacamole, marmite, mustard and peanut butter and excited plenty of yuks and euurghs and the like as you can imagine. Much fun!
We moved into the extension where it took the combined forces of Laura and Emma a good ten minutes to open the 3 hampers and bags of goodies! Then some more chilling and the photo gallery where we all got to giggle at our baby selves. Then LC and Leah went home and suddenly, like an idiot, I realised I'd not taken any photos... So here we all are, minus LC and Leah unfortunately. Next post is the play, I promise...
Baby Shower
Recipes
Rosemary and olive soda bread
Mix sifted flour (200g, self raising) with bicarbonate of soda (1/2 tsp) and stir in chopped olives (30g) and chopped rosemary. Stir in 100g natural plain yoghurt with a knife to make a clean ball - add a little water if necessary. Mark into wedges with a knife and press some olive spigs into these score lines. Bake in a preheated oven at gas mark 7 for 20-25 minutes or until it sounds hollow when you tap it from underneath. Yum.
Bacon Koftas
Place 225g rindless back bacon into the food processor (if it isn't large you might need to do this in batches) with 75g breadcrumbs, 2 chopped spring onions, some parsley,, lemon rind of 1 lemon, an egg white and black pepper. Process until it is finely chooped but not pureed, it just needs to bind together. Divide the mixture into 8 evenly sized portions then shape around bamboo/wooden skewers. Sprinkle with paprika. Cook under the grill or on the bbq for 8-10 mins, turning occasionally.
Patatas bravas
Not a family recipe this is from a book so this might not be everyone's way of cooking them...
Heat 2tbs olive oil and add a finely chopped onion. Cook on a medium heat, stirring, until softened. Add 2 garlic cloves, crushed then after 30 seconds add 50ml sherry or white wine (I used sherry) and bring to the boil. Add 400g chopped tomatoes, 2 tsp red wine vinegar 2tsp crushed chillies, and paprika and simmer until it forms a thick sauce. Blend with a hand held blender once cool. Then fry your potatoes and voilà!
