Jac’s family came over for a birthday dinner of cold meat and salad, probably Jac’s favourite meal. We started with a couple of rounds of nibblies. Jac made her famous savoury eggs, which we served up in her special savoury egg dish. We didn’t have enough eggs to fill up all the space, so I made some other savouries on mini toasts. I spread some baby mayo on each mini toast, added a slice of sweet gherkin pickle and a piece of fresh tomato and topped that with a smoked oyster. Those tinned smoked oysters are really stinky! I didn’t eat any of the oyster savouries, but everyone else loved them.

Here’s my assembly line of oyster savoury production. That’s the paring knife I bought Jac for Christmas. Since the oyster thingys were so popular I ended up using the whole tin of oysters. Thank goodness, it would’ve ponged up the fridge. Hahahaha.

On Thursday night, Jac roasted a piece of beef medium rare in the oven, which she simply flavoured with salt and pepper. She sliced it thinly to serve on the cold meat platter.

We bought a barbecue chook from Woolworths, to serve cold.

L-R: Seasoned roast pork (from Woolworths), Jac’s roast beef and German salami (from Woolworth’s).

Jac’s mum brought a garden salad:

Jac’s brother Brad made his famous coleslaw, with white and red cabbage. The cabbage isn’t usually so finely chopped, but Brad had experimented with the food processor (not entirely successfully!). Although the cabbage ended up too fine, the flavour of the salad was delicious. I ate loads of it.

Jac and I made a potato and pea salad. Really easy: boiled potato cubes, boiled peas, tossed with salt, pepper, chopped spring onions and Miracle Whip mayonaise.

On Thursday night, Jac also made some raspberry jelly for the kids and her mum. Jac planned to serve a cheeseboard, crackers and fruit, rather than have sweets or a cake, but she thought the kids and her mum (who has a very sweet tooth) would prefer a sweet dessert. At the bottom of the jelly is tinned fruit and fruit cake, and the lolly on top is a jelly pineapple.

We served the cheese with strawberries, seedless grapes, nectarine, pear and walnuts. I’ll try to remember what the cheeses are… In the middle is a generic Aussie Gold Camembert. From the orange retangular block on the left, moving clockwise: Red Leicester, Charles Sturt University Cheddar (the wedge with the yellow wax), Castillo blue vein, a matured cheddar (not sure what sort), Charles Sturt University Bush Tomato Cheese (the wedge with the orange wax), I’m not sure what the next cheese is (the semi circle shaped one). Jac is having an afternoon nap now, but I’ll ask her later. Edit: that cheese is a havarti. The black-looking stuff next to the nectarine is grape jelly.