"Organic Home Garden Party"
Cater to your family and friends and have an organic evening at home in your garden. Consider outside lighting and even decorations for your party...read more about outdoor lighting here   "Organically Yours..." Celebrate the abundance of locally produced organic fruit and vegetables, and have an organic home garden party.Whether it's with good friends or family or a happy mix of both, an organic evening from start to finish will create a warm rosy glow of contentment and lots of positive energy. Put a little time and energy into the preparations and you will be able to enjoy the evening as well!During the day, prepare some or all of the following salads. Chill in their serving dishes in the bottom of the fridge. ************************************************** Finely slice a lettuce and put into a large bowl. Loosen with your hands or a large slotted spoon. Mix in a very finely sliced onion and a tomato.If available, add sliced organic cucumber, sweet peppers and a few chopped fresh herbs.
Steam or boil diced potatoes until tender and leave to cool completely.Stir in some chopped chives and a mayonnaise sauce- try half mayo and half natural yoghurt. Taste sauce before adding to potatoes. Chill before serving.Optional extra: mix in some walnut pieces and chopped celery.
Cook rice and leave until cold. Put into a large bowl and mix in; sweetcorn, chopped tomato, onion and green pepper.Chill before serving.Add a few nuts and even dried fruits if liked. Can be served with a mayonnaise sauce.
Grate or very finely chop some white cabbage, an onion and a raw carrot. Mix together in a large bowl with a mayonnaise sauce. Chill before serving.If available add finely chopped walnuts and celery Now you have a selection of salads, prepare the dessert: Your home garden party wouldn't be complete without fresh fruit....  Fruit salad:Chop any fresh organic fruits you have available and mix with a few dried fruits and nuts. Search the market stalls for an exotic fruit or two, such as mango or pineapple, to add a 'je ne sais quoi' to your salad! Leave to marinate for an hour before serving. Cover with a clean cloth and leave in a cool place.
1. Dice and steam or boil a couple of largish potatoes until just cooked. Drain and leave to cool. 2. Slice some mushrooms and simmer gently in a little water in a frying pan for a few minutes. Drain and leave to cool. 3. Slice and gently simmer one or two medium onions - as you did with the mushrooms. Drain and leave to cool. 4. Boil a few peas. Drain and leave to cool. While this lot is cooling, clear up the chaos in the kitchen and find a fairly large flat dish - a chopping board will do. When the veggies are cool, arrange them in small heaps on your dish and set aside, covering with a cloth to keep them moist and to protect from flies. The next step for the ultimate organic home garden party is an outside job! Shut down the barbeque and build a fire instead.Find a comfortable spot in the garden, away from trees and wooden fences etc; and make a circle of stones. These should be large stones, about housebrick size - but no bigger. The diameter of the circle should be about 20 inches (50cm) or so.Then make another circle of stones around the first one about twice the size. NB: If you don't have space to do this, use your barbeque grill - your home garden party will be almost as much fun! Or invest in a firepit - apparantly they are all the rage! This one is available from Crocus UK:
And Amazon US have a number of different outdoor firepits available:
Use the long sticks by pulling them out and pushing them into the embers. When you push them in, the flame will burn higher. Normally you will need to keep the flame low, but if left too long, the fire will die, so heating it up and removing the pan from time to time will keep the embers glowing nicely! NB: Don't use your best pans for this! If you're cooking steaks or veggie burgers - throw them in the pan and get frying!If you decided on the omelette, bring your covered dish of prepared vegetables to the fire and place in between the circles of stones. Beat eggs in a bowl, allowing two per person. You could do this in shifts if there are more than four people eating. The cooking time is quick so by the time the first shift have dished up their salads, the next servings are cooked!NOTE! Make your home garden party interactive - enrol some help :-) Pour a little oil in the frying pan and add a spoonful of each of the ingredients on your dish: potatoes, onions etc; Stir gently and pour beaten egg over the mixture. Sprinkle on some grated cheese to taste. Add a little black pepper. Cook gently for a few minutes, then turn and cook for a few minutes on the other side. The omelette will probably fall apart during this manoeuvre, but push it all back together -it will taste just as good. :-) Now dish up your main course on individual plates and let everyone serve themselves from the delicious spread of salads decorating your very special home garden party outside table! Carefully remove the trivet from the fire, place a few logs on and enjoy your meal to a crackling fire in the night sky! Voila! a wonderful organic home garden party!  And still later......after everyone has complimented you on a delicious meal and scrummy dessert, play a traditional parlour game to round off the evening.Avoid card games or word games. They require far too much concentration!Entertain each other by showing off what a fool you can be by playing charades. Choose the name of a song, a tv programme, a film, whatever, and mime the title - abosolutely no speaking aloud, unless you're under ten yrs old, then you can have a few concessions! If no one guesses your mime, you have the added embarasment of having another go! Or try playing this once very popular parlour game ( perfect for a late home garden party! ): Divide guests into two teams, seated on opposite sides of the table. One team passes a coin between their clenched hands under their side of the table until the other team call out "Up Jenkins". The team with the coin put each of their hands ( clenched ) on the table in full view. The object is for the other team to guess where the coin is. They can only touch the clenched hands when they decide to eliminate, and say "Down Jenkins". If the hand told to go down contains the coin, the coin holders win the round and play again. But if the last hand is still on the table with the coin, the other team have won and it's their turn to hide the coin. A perfect end to an organic home garden party!
Happy Partying! More "Home Garden Party" Reading
Grow Your Own Winter Food: A good diet incorporating plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables is a must if you want to stay fit and healthy and keep the bugs at bay during the cold winter months. Growing your own winter food is just one way of ensuring you get the freshest, tastiest produce packed with goodness straight from the garden to the kitchen table. This easy-to-follow self-sufficiency book shows you how to grow your own fruit and vegetables for winter use and includes facts on each fruit, vegetable or herb as well as nutritional value, recipe ideas and storage suggestions.  Grow Your Own Winter Food is perfect for those with limited gardening experience, with gardens big or small who are looking to become more self-sufficient. Order it now direct from the publisher... Grow Your Own Winter Food Grow It, Cook It!: Many crops, including herbs, can be produced in a relatively small space with a little pre-planning and organizing: in containers, on a balcony, and indoors. Herbs are perfect for enhancing the flavour of cooking, treating minor ailments, and preventing colds and flu. Your own back garden will not only produce the best food on the planet for you and your loved ones, it is also economical, environmentally friendly and more fun than shopping. Gardening is more than a hobby; it's a way of life. .("There are lots of simple recipe ideas perfect for your home garden party in this wonderful book!")  This book provides all the information you need to keep your family and friends healthy, fit and enjoying life to the full. Order it now direct from the publisher... Grow It, Cook It! Grow Your Own Pharmacy: If, like me, you want to be able to eat the best food on the planet, grow your own!  • Clear instructions on planning, planting, growing and harvesting the fruits, vegetables and herbs required for a healthy vitamin intake. • Recipes and menus to help incorporate the fruit and vegetables into your daily diet. Grow Your Own Pharmacy Herbs and Spices: Some herbs grow vigorously, some are tender and need special growing conditions, some are annuals, some perennials, some you can grow indoors, all can be grown in pots or directly into the ground. There are also certain spices, such as chillies, that can be grown in temperate climates.  This clear and concise directory of herbs and spices provides all the essential information to help you grow a selection of these flavour-enhancing foods in small or large spaces. Ideas for which herbs and spices go best with which foods also accompany each description, so that you can really enliven your repertoire of recipes. Order it now direct from the publisher... Herbs and Spices Granny's Book Of Good Old Fashioned Common Sense is packed full of great ideas and tips. Granny brings traditional home-making up to date with cooking, gardening, needlecrafts and even games to play with the kids...Click on the link below to order your copy.  Cooking doesn’t have to be a chore and preparing nourishing home cooked meals for the family will certainly keep them away from the goodie shelf. Gardening encourages physical exercise and a good healthy dollop of fresh air. And you can get the kids involved too. Before the days of computer games and electronic pets, children used to have fun without rummaging about in the fridge every five minutes. Enjoy a few rainy-day games and crafts of yesteryear with today’s kids. They’ll love it and so will you! Granny's Book Of Good Old Fashioned Common Sense Back To Home and Garden Flower and Garden Tips Homepage Click Here To Subscribe to "Creative Gardening" - Your FREE monthly ezine! www.flower-and-garden-tips.com/homegardenparty.html |
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