Hello you gorgeous lot! You missed me Aww sweet!! Okay, here we go...

[merciasounds]

starters: Thai style crab-cakes with spicy sweet chili dip - salad garnish
Chicken liver pate with port, melba toasts, salad garnish
avocado vinaigrette

Main:
Meatballs (made with best minced steak) and spaghetti - Either red wine or tomato sauce
Coq-au-Vin Chicken flambed in brandy, cooked in white wine with mushrooms (or not if your Mcfluff!) onions, smoked bacon, served with new potatoes and fine green beans
Homemade Cumberland style sausage coil, served with creamy mash and onion gravy.peas

Puds Toffee- apple pie served with cinnamon ice cream
Raspberry jam roly-poly
Fresh fruit salad with whipped cream/ice cream

[mccfluff]

yep. i'm v hungry

can i have avocado, cumberland and fruit salad plse

Did your hubby get back ok?

[ummmm]

I'll have the two starters as I don't like any of the mains.

[joggerjayne]

Oooh, fab, mercia.

I'd definitely choose the Thai crab cakes ... I love them.

Well made meatballs? Yep, that sounds good.

And ... fresh fruit salad and ice cream.

Yep, that sounds good to me.

J x

[merciasounds]

Hubby made his way to friends in Italy - hopefully, he'll be home at the weekend...

[merciasounds]

Ummmm, a nice sauce with duck breasts is: heat some orange juice, thicken with slaked cornflour, and add a splash of cointreau or other Orange liqueur, and half a jar of Oxford orange marmalade. Duck a la orange. Nice with black cherries too...

[paddywak]

Of course we missed you mercia, we all look forward to your menus, even if through health reasons we have to be a bit carefull what we eat, somedays I can put 5lbs on just reading them, especially the puds

[merciasounds]

No darling, they're CYBER calories, that is calorie free - Imagine that, calorie free grub!! One could make a right piggy of oneself!!

[pericat]

Chicken liver pate
coq au vin
fresh fruit salad

[paddywak]

I could live with that mercia, unfortunately here in the real world the calories and things are all lying in ambush. Have you noticed all the things the so called "experts" say we shouldn't eat are always seem the things we like the most while the so called healthy options are things you'd never eat if given a choice, still as my dear old mum used to say "everything in moderation"

[Jan1957]

Crab cakes, Coq au Vin and Toffee apple pie for me please.

[merciasounds]

Paddywak, as my friend Lydia said (on her way to weight-watchers via my house) If only lettuce tasted like chocolate cake, low fat yoghurt like fresh whipped cream, and chips like celery, I'd be one happy bunny!!

[paddywak]

seems like Lydia and I think alike

[ummmm]

I've got some plums to go with it. Cooked with chilli and ginger.

I could only get a crown of duck as they had run out of breasts. Do you think it will be best to take the breast off the bone or shall I leave it?

[ethandron]

i made spicy meatballs with minced pork and finely chopped bacon last night and a home made tomato sauce. and i made a fresh fruit salad for tonight too. what a coincidence :)
the meatballs had chilli flakes and coarsly ground pepper in them and were delicious, and my fruit salad contains bananas, pears, apples, blood oranges and green grapes, all in some tropical fruit juice. how do you do yours mercia?

[merciasounds]

I'd cook it on the bone Ummmm. I was going to say plum sauce, I like a chinese plum sauce with star anise.

[KingOfMercia]

I can't eat anything too spicy or vinegary....so I think the pate, as long as it isn't too rich...then the coq au vin oooooh - is there custard to go with the roly poly? else i'll have the pie....thank you

[ummmm]

I'm cooking on the bone....tis smelling nice :-)