The Belgium Cooking Group/ Le Groupe de Cuisine Belgique

Funny old weekend with a bunch of Parisians doing a no show as they had car problem half way here...hope they got home safely but unfortunately left us with 'Dinner for 4' and noone to eat it!!
Grrr but hey that is life...on the up side the other lovely couple from Antwerp in Belgium got to have the whole house to themselves for the weekend and loved every minute of it!!

 We cooked for them last night...roast pork served with caramelized apples from the trees, roasted onions in thyme and cream, the last of Madam Paris' potatoes roasted till crisp and red cabbage with apples slowly cooked in red wine...makes for a lovely Autumn dish full of colour when plattered up by my artistic husband...

We served the same selection of vegetables with a roasted leg of NZ lamb recently for the boys 'Cooking Group' from Belgium...the next night after many visits Tom and the other boys finally came back and cooked for us! All my jokes about the 'cooking' playing a lesser part than the 'drinking' came home to roost.

 The girls and I went shopping at the Marques Avenue...a fabulous HUGE factory outlet village French style on the outskirts of Troyes...it was a lot of fun and a lot less stressful for me than watching 'the boys' running my kitchen!! Meanwhile Mike ran the ship and had his work cut out but was taking his job of testing the selection of the beers for the evening very seriously!!

Prawns in a creamy sauce for the Entree

Cream of Endive Soup cleverly served with a small pile of Smoked Salmon and Herbs in the centre of the plate.

Roast Loin of Pork with a mustard sauce and vegetables to follow...

Dessert was a crumbled meringue and cream parfait with red berry fruit.

What a hoot they were...a laugh a minute and it was a fun night...dinner for 14 is no mean feat but they prepared a delicious feast for us and accompanied by the delicious specialist Belgium beers it was a rare treat!!

We danced till late in the evening and laughed a lot all night...a very successful evening with a lovely bunch of guys and their wives...a nice end to the business of the season..