Strawberry Champagne (Prosecco) in my messy kitchen
Two weeks ago, we had our first heat of Come Dine With Me. As I said earlier, I was waiting for all of the votes to be sent in to our neutral score keeper until I revealed what went on behind the scenes.
I think I managed to maintain a stress-free good-host exterior, but I can now reveal that I did, in fact, have a bit of a freak attack on the Friday of CDWM.
You see, I had gone to great list-making lengths of organising myself for the evening. I made different lists for shopping – not only what I needed to get but in which shops I would get them as well as what times I would be going to the shops and in what order etc.
I had also made an organisational plan of my cooking process. I had everything included, like what time I would start peeling the spuds, when I would wash the strawberries, to when I would take the spuds out of the oven, etc. Everything.
Now, being organised does not come naturally to me. So it was no surprise really that about an hour and a half before the guests were arriving, I realised that I had LOST my bloody cooking plan! That really says it all. It threw me into a tizzy which poor Niall had to bear the brunt of. We laughed about it afterwards (much later afterwards, mind).
Let’s start at the beginning, though, before the panic attacks and tears and throwing down of aprons in frustration. I finished work at around 1pm and set off to get my ingredients for the night.
First stop was Avoca on Suffolk Street (near to Grafton Street for out of towners), where I needed to pick up my place mats and napkins for the evening. Doesn’t matter how much of a tomboy you are, one foot inside Avoca and you catch Girly, making you squeal with delight over the frills and sparkly things everywhere. Beautiful shop.
