Yes, we’re all stuffed from the copious amounts of food and booze of December but what better way to welcome January 2013 at the Manor but with more food and drink!
We’re bringing tastes and flavours from sunnier climes next month, using Thomasina Miers’ second Mexican cookbook, Wahaca – Mexican food at home.
Dan and I have scoured the recipes and have created a menu which will get our guests’ tastebuds tingling! I can feel the spice already!
Enjoy!
This weekend saw us host our last event for 2012 and close up the Manor for this year with our Vintage afternoon tea! This was a private event which we held for two lovely groups of ladies who wanted to start their Christmas celebration with some savoury and sweet delights! We love putting on these afternoon teas, if not only so Dan can whip out his fine array of vintage crockery, which I am very jealous of!
Once again we were able to put our baking hats on to create our version of an afternoon tea. Yes, it’s a tradition but we like to put our own spin on the proceedings, serving some hot and cold savoury treats alongside the usual sweet morsels. Continue reading
Christmas has arrived at the Manor again and in honour of our favourite celebration we held a dinner inspired by some of our favourite festive Nigella recipes. We used Feast, Nigellissima, Kitchen and Nigella’s Christmas as our guides to put together a filling and enjoyable banquet. We’ve always felt that the Manor is at its best as a winter venue and so it was an absolute joy to have an excuse to get the tree and decorations out particularly early!
We welcomed our guests in from a particularly chilly night and led them up to our cosy library with roaring fire and Christmas carols. We had a mixture of new and repeat guests who were all looking forward to some Christmas fun!
The cocktail for the evening was a ‘yule mule’ a vodka based tipple with lime juice, cranberry and ginger beer. This was paired with canapes that included bocconcini, or ‘golden balls’ – little mozzarella pearls coated in breadcrumbs and fried til golden and crisp. Also on the agenda were sticky and moist chipolatas in a moreish ginger and mustard glaze. Finally the canape we’ve been excited about for ages was mini meatzzas. A meatzza is Nigella’s bizarre attempt at combining a pizza but instead of bread, the base is made of meat! She makes giant ones but Susie adapted the recipe and formed mini bite size beauties. They were a revelation for us, elegant and fun – plus they did indeed taste of pizza!
Dinner at the Manor 