My friendships are the foundation of my life. Having come from an enormous family ~ well, my immediate family is small (and I cherish them so!) but coming from a large extended family where I have over a hundred first cousins, for me, blood is not always thicker than water.
I moved out of home and away from my family over a decade ago (I just felt a new wrinkle burrow itself into my forehead) and though I’m ever so slightly obsessively-compulsively-fiercely independent, my friends are my life source; they’ve been with me through the lowest of lows and highest of highs. We’ve laughed and cried ~ thankfully more laughs than cries ~ and while it’s been difficult with us all scattered across the globe, I’ve got most of my girlfriends with me in London right now, a rarity I know, and believe me when I say I appreciate it more than you can imagine.
Last night was one of the most special nights of my life. From the outside, it wasn’t any different to an ordinary dinner party, but after work yesterday saw me skadoodling down to London Bridge to have dinner with Loreen, Mags and Melissa, three of my very closest girls. Sounds normal, but you see, we haven’t all been together in Over. TEN. Years.
And what made it even more special? Mags was cooking. Mel was baking. Loreen provided the house. And I did sweet f*** all 
In fact, I even have leftovers for lunch today so really, last night was goddamn special.
Gathered in Loreen’s kitchen, which by the way is stunning and gorgeous and packed full of Le Creuset items and she doesn’t even cook but it’s ok because her husband cooks for her – OMGLUCKYINEEDTOTAKEABREATH – we (I mean Mags) cooked up a little storm while we chatted and laughed and reminisced about good times and gossiped about everyone we’ve ever known, because isn’t that what girls do? Yes, yes it is.
Mags was already baking some pumpkin when I arrived, and the fragrance of roast pumpkin is just one of those little pleasures of life. The pumpkin was going to become a spicy pumpkin soup, she told me, with garlic and onions and chilli, which are only like my three favourite things ever! Happy catty.
The soup was delicious. Like seriously. A rich blend of pumpkin and chicken stock and the chilli! An ever so tiny kick to wake your taste buds. I don’t think Mags has ever cooked for me before (we normally rendezvous at mine where I’m responsible for the kitchen assault) but this! I could totally get used to this
For our main, Mags made lemon and mustard crumbed chicken with fresh bread crumbs and all that. Smothered in mustard and covered in crunchy bread crumbs, I didn’t think the dish could get better until she doused the lot with a lemon and butter concoction which I’m pretty sure I would drink on the spot, but luckily for all involved, I was banished from the kitchen last night.
Baked to a scrumptious golden brown, Mags served the chicken on a bed of salad ~ organic tomatoes, peppers and rocket from Borough Market, dressed with balsamic and mustard. Nommy nom nom.
Dessert was the responsibility of little Melissa (she’s littler than I am, which apparently is possible) and she had a lemon cake which she’d prepared earlier, the little do-gooder. It was only a small lemon cake and Mel insisted on telling us that it was because “the tin, the cake tin, it was meant for Victorian sponge. Which is small. And you can do three layers. You got that people? It’s small not because I’m retarded but because I used a Victorian sponge tin. It’s small, it’s meant to be small. So you can do three layers.”
Ok, so it’s not funny to y’all but we absolutely pissed ourselves. We’re weird like that.
Anyway so the lemon cake was pretty fricking awesome, but she still had to make the frosting. She made too much but Loreen and I (who both had no part in the food-making last night but y’know we’re still experts) insisted that it was fine to put on the cake. Well, I think we drowned it a little bit. Just a tiny bit. Which makes it all the yum, in my humble opinion!
Being a school night and being small and Asian and generally lacking in alcohol tolerance (yes, we as a race are just alcoholically challenged) we didn’t even drink but really, the amount of laughter coming from us would have led any outsider to believe we were pissed off our nuts. Or high. Whatever works.
Last night was stupendously fun. But there was a gaping hole where a very special someone should have been. My friend Babs, who’s back in Sydney was sorely missed but it’s ok, Mags and Babs are twins so it was kinda sorta like she was there anyway
But seriously, I love my girls and Babs is coming over in September this year which means that they will all be here for my birthday! It’s gonna be a special one.
xx
| spicy pumpkin soup |
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| 1 butternut squash pumpkin, cut into cubes 1 onion, chopped 3 cloves garlic, pressed 1 red chilli, chopped finely 500mL chicken stock olive oil, mixed herbs and dash of salt and pepper |
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| Serves 4 as a starter. |
| lemon and mustard crumbed chicken |
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| 4 pieces of chicken breast or thigh bread crumbs hot English mustard 3 tablespoons lemon juice 3 tablespoons boiling water 1/4 melted butter |
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| Serves 4. |