Birthday Finale

Yesterday, I had friends over for a Spring Cocktail Brunch. It didn't officially call it a birthday party, but it was the party I planned because I had a birthday . . . And I got a few belated birthday wishes and small gifts from friends I hadn't seen since before March 25th.

I wore the new skirt Mom made me last month and got many compliments throughout the afternoon.

On the savory side, I made a veggie frittata and a bacon quiche. There was also a pain surprise. Claire brought blue cheese and walnut muffins. Frédérique brought zucchini and feta muffins. The girls had sausages and potato patties.

On the sweet side, I made parsnip apple muffins and sweet potato muffins. Laureva made chocolate raspberry blueberry muffins. The girls made waffles which could be eaten with chocolate sauce made by Maëva, strawberry mint sauce and whipped cream. Claire brought Mallowmelt (guimol in French, a Keeper of the Lost Cities thing). Jenny brought a carrot cake.

For drinks, there were Mimosas, a big bowl of Atlantic Breeze cocktail (rum, pineapple juice, fresh lemon juice, apricot liqueur and Galliano), and a non-alcoholic apple, elderflower cordial, mint and sparkling water cocktail prepared by Laureva.

Later on, I brought out a cheese platter and some nice breads which Mary picked up at a bakery in Aix. Finally, I brought out my chocolate wine cake with the chocolate drizzle Maëva had prepared (the extra of which we used for the waffles).

Jenny, Frédérique and Vincent left relatively early. The rest of us headed up to the shady boules court mid-afternoon for a round of Mölkky (Francesca had been keen on playing again). There were nine of us, so we split into three teams of three. My team (me, Claire and Sophie) won thanks to Claire's spot on hit on number 12 to put us at 51. I had also hit the 12 in the penultimate round. We were on a roll there at the end!!