Sunday, April 12, 2015

The Longest Birthday Party

Birthday parties have got longer. It was my youngest's 14th birthday last week and he decided to invite three friends to his 'party' involving cinema, KFC and a sleepover.

Despite the fact it was Easter weekend, his friends were free to arrive just after lunch on Saturday. They spent the afternoon mucking about, coming in only for the birthday tea. Regular readers of this blog may remember my birthday cakes are never a success. For some reason, something either goes wrong, or they are not liked by picky French taste buds.

This year was no exception. My son wanted a banana and chocolate tart with homemade pastry. Easy peasy. I got out the food processor, made up the pastry, let it rest, rolled it out and baked it blind. So far so good. Disaster struck when I was trying to remove the split peas that I'd used to weigh down the pastry. Some of the little buggers had slipped between the dish and pastry when I was taking them out, so I thought I could remove them by tipping up the dish...

Naturally, the pastry fell out of the dish and onto the work surface, where it continued its bid for freedom by making rapidly for the floor. In bits. I yelled, dear reader. I shrieked, and many an expletive passed my lips. I even threw my oven glove across the kitchen (all of one metre). Then I picked up all the bits and wondered what to do.

Luckily the cleaner had been the day before so the 15 or so second rule was not a problem. I didn't want to throw away a tart's worth of pastry, and after some reflection, decided to arrange all the bits back in the dish, like a big jigsaw. At worst, it would end up as a choccie/banana crunch. I put the pastry dish back in the oven to finish off, and later made the chocolate filling (Nestlé dessert black chocolate + brick of organic cream). I sliced a couple of bananas, put them over the cooled base, poured over the filling and put it in the fridge. And hey presto:
Rescued birthday chocolate/banana tart
You'd never guess that it had been on the floor a few hours earlier and the cause of a total hissy fit, would you? It was delicious too. De.Li.Cious!

We sang Happy Birthday, and it all went, to sounds of approval (a miracle!). Then I dropped them off to see Fast and Furious 7 (I was not included in the invitation...) and picked them up later to enjoy their takeaway KFC. I was delighted to find out that cinema tickets are only €4 for under 14s, so that kept the price down, as did buying popcorn from Carrouf instead of paying an outrageous amount inside the cinema.

The next day I found out they were all staying for lunch and beyond (no one was having a big Easter family lunch obviously), and my youngest suggested a picnic at the Lac Cécélés near St Mathieu de Treviers. I made up jambon beurre sarnies for all except one who had cheese, baked some cookies, and we all set off to the lake. My DB joined me after lunch and we went for a walk up the lake and over to the dinky village of St Croix de Quintillargues.
Lac de Cécélés
The boys had a lovely time mucking about with a free-floating pontoon 'boat' but managed not to get wet. They couldn't get far because the wind kept blowing them back to shore, but they used up a nice lot of energy trying.
Four boys on a 'boat'
We left when they'd had enough, went home for more food, and the last one left at 5.30pm. My youngest was shattered but happy. At last I could give the boys their Lindt choccie bunnies, and cook Easter dinner which was a rolled leg of lamb that I'd brought back from England after Christmas. It was excellent, and much appreciated after such a busy day!

My son spent Easter Monday very quietly.

19 comments:

  1. What a super birthday weekend - and a testament to you as a host that everyone wanted the celebrations to continue. Well done on rescuing the tart, buying popcorn from the supermarket and managing to get such bargain cinema tickets - brilliant!

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    1. The recipe to success was: 1) keep out of the way, 2) provide lots of food. Saturday it was all trash food, and on Sunday they got something a bit healthier. I hope their teeth and their stomachs sighed with relief. :)

      I was most chuffed to learn about the cinema tickets, and the two boxes of popcorn which cost less than one serving from the cinema! Not as fresh, but just as unhealthy. :)

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  2. Sounds interesting. There are no KFC around here...I'm always rather amazed that KFC is popular with the French. Well you got through that one -- wait 'til "les 18 ans" or "les 20 ans" if you want more complication!

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    1. I used to like KFC but not any more. I think it's a taste that appeals to youth (sweetish and spicy).

      My eldest turned 18 last September and wanted nothing more than a bunch of money to blow in town on a night out. No trouble at all! :)

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  3. Your home-made birthday cake looks scrumptious! We don't need to mention its little mishap journey it took to becoming perfection. I can't bake for sh!t, so yours looks great, compared to anything I might attempt.

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    1. It was in fact very easy, and even easier if you have a tart base or use ready-made pastry. The filling was gorgeous - so smooth and silky. The Dessert chocolate was just the job with the cream. And I just had to melt them together and pour over the sliced bananas on the pastry then into the fridge. :)

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  4. Gosh you're patient. We've just let our eldest have an 18th. We went in at 1am as agreed, turned on the kitchen lights & turned the music off. The party was in our kitchen diner, very loud. It worked. they left happy & politely. We were left with a sticky (beery) kitchen floor. We think we got off lightly.

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    1. I'm happy to say that my eldest doesn't like having parties at our house. He enjoys going to them elsewhere but they make too much mess chez nous. I'm not complaining...

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  5. Hilarious!!! Its amazing the chaos that split peas can wreack. The pie looks incredibly yummy - you son and friends are so lucky. I just do bog standard Safeway one or vanilla ice cream and call it a day.
    When you saw French tastes are picky about your cakes - that's intriguing - what sort of things don't they like???

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    1. They know what they like, if you see what I mean. So that means chocolate cake, yoghurt cake and all the moussy things you get at a patisserie.

      They don't like to try the unknown, so my boiled fruit cake and carrot cake get a very poor reception despite the fact that in England they'd go down a storm. Picky French taste buds is what I put it down to. :)

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  6. How relieved was I to see that kitchen catastrophes don't just happen to me... :-) The tart looks gorgeous - much nicer than all those "étouffe -chrétiens" you get from pâtisseries. Sounds like a great day was had by all! I've never heard of that lake - I will check it out.

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    1. They had a great weekend! :)

      I think I made the tart too early in the morning. My brain had not yet reached 'functioning' level so it thought turning the pie upside down to get the peas out was a good idea...

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  7. Sounds like they had a great weekend, I have reached a stage now where I tend to forget that there is a birthday coming up :-) Have a good day Diane

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    1. Oh they did indeed! I'm glad to say they all went home happy, and I hope their parents enjoyed the boy-free peace too...!

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  8. Sounds like they had a great weekend, I have reached a stage now where I tend to forget that there is a birthday coming up :-) Have a good day Diane

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  9. Entertaining three friends in such happily simple ways sounds so much more fun for all concerned than a big, noisy party. I bet they remember it all (your delicious tart included) far longer than they ever would have a conventional party.

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    1. My thinking too, and they got out and about in the sunshine! :)

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  10. Gutted to see them indulging in KFC over there but exceedingly proud of you to have rescued that tart lol! That is indeed a very long birthday party but it sounds an astounding success and I envy you that locality and lamb!

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    1. Unfortunately at that age, they love junk food. My eldest moans every day that he has to eat organic food instead of lovely tasty junk food. Poor thing... :)

      The lamb was British, brought back after Christmas from my mum's freezer. :) French lamb costs an arm and a leg.

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