Crowded House

Another weekend has completely flown by.  We've had family houseguests here for the last four days and as we owed some cousins an invite to the house, I thought that it would be a good idea to get the family together on this weekend.  Which meant 13 for dinner.  Fortunately, the meals area is big enough to cope, we have a couple of tables and enough chairs that we didn't have to raid the outdoor furniture.  Food wasn't too tricky - a slow cooker chicken and chickpea "tagine", Moroccan vegetable stew, lamb shoulder roasted in the barbeque and baked tomatoes and beetroot.  For dessert, Nigella came to the rescue with her Anglo-Italian trifle.  I think it needs a little tweaking (cutting down on the marscapone and limoncello) but it is a quick and impressive dish that serves 12 - 14, depending on how greedy they are. 

As we had a guest with lactose intolerance, I thought I'd make a flourless orange and almond cake, however it got overcooked (OK, burnt).  But with a trim, and instructions to the guests to cut off any additional carbon, it was tasty.  It just didn't look like it should have. 

We had a great night catching up with everyone and look forward to doing it again.  At someone else's place!