Another manic weekend...

I'll try and flickr some pictures later on, but yet again a super manic weekend working up to, enjoying, and then tidying up from, our engagement party BBQ...last minute shopping on Friday night in Tesco, then up at the crack of dawn on Saturday (getting to the butchers before he had even made a start on putting our order together (24 burgers, 16 prime serloin steaks, 20 jumbo sausages, 40 chicken quarters and 8 racks of baby back ribs)) then got home and made a start on the salads (1 plum tomato, mozerella and onion with balsamic dressing, one garlic, basil and chive pasta salad, one mayo and sweetcorn, one sliced italian tomato, basil and mozerella with cracked black pepper and olive oil, one mixed leaf (mostly romaine and baby spinach) then just sliced mixed peppers, spring onions and cucumber for dipping). Next I made a start on the meat prep, ribs were marinaded in either Wing Yip Hoi Sin, Peri Peri BBQ, San Fran sticky honey BBQ or New Hampshire "Hot Bone Suckin' rib" sauce and cooked very slowly for 1.5 hours, chicken was seasoned and cooked until the juices ran clear, sausages started in the oven (until just starting to go brown), and burgers went straight to the BBQ, where everything else was finished off. Flyingpops mum brought a large number of quiches and helped get all the tables ready while I was cooking (and we watched with dismay as heavy shower after heavy shower doused the garden), then Gayle arrived bearing a *huge* banner she had made (saying "CONGRATULATIONS", which was shortly joined by another banner that had been hand decorated by little Alexander, with help from his mum... ;)
Then *my* mum arrived bringing 5 incredible deserts (pictures of all this later, as I mentioned before)...and the party really started to get going, luckily the weather held off and everyone could spread out around the garden, my Dad and Stuart handled the BBQs while I cooked the steaks to order (as and when people wanted them) on my griddle pan...

A really good do, but it would have been impossible to cater for everyone without all the help, thanks everyone!! :)

Sunday I was up pretty early, and joined in helping Ratty and Jinx do a bit of tidying up while Flyingpops had a lay in, then she awoke and between us we finished off the house, taking a quick break to zoom to Redhill aerodrome for a spot of "full english" action to top up the blood sugar levels, I then collapsed for a little nap on the sofa outside, and in the evening I cooked Moroccan lamb with boiled potatos and corn on the cob for tea while we watched the Grand Prix (Well done again Mr Hamilton!)...