Seven Deadly Sins

I have a few retrospective posts I need to make about absolutely fabulous parties I've had in the past that just have to go in this blog. This is one of them: the Seven Deadly Sins Degustation Dinner Party (SDSDDP).

The SDSDDP is where we introduce one of this blog's main characters, who is my partner in crime for most of these dinner extravaganzas (and will continue to be so!) Readers, meet the Cowboy. Cowboy, meet readers. Excellent.

The SDSDDP was the unholy spawn of Masterchef inspiration and drunken enthusiasm. Unlike most of the drunken ideas I concieve, the ones that the Cowboy and I come up with tend, surprisingly, to still be attractive in the harsh, hungover light of morning. This was one of the most attractive of all: we were going to throw the dinner party to end all dinner parties, starting with cocktails and going through soups and salads and sorbets with wines to match, and ending with a proper dessert wine and petits-fours. A real, old-fashioned dinner party where a certain standard of dress was required and there was a different set of cutlery for every course.  To the Cowboy and me it sounded heavenly.

The Food
 

The Seven Deadly Sins theme had actually popped up some weeks earlier while my husband and I were watching Masterchef. There was a challenge which involved contestants having to produce dishes inspired by each of the sins. We both got rather excited by this idea and immediately invented a dozen dishes which we felt would be better than the ones on the show. This produced a short -term desire to cook said dishes which fizzled out due to the insurmountable challenge of being bothered.

With the timely introduction of drunkenness however, some of these dishes were resurrected and and ended up in the magnificent menu we so lovingly constructed.

(if you want the recipes for any of these, please request them in the comments. This post will be too long already without adding seven recipes!)

The Details

Invitations were sent out in the mail and were similar in design to the menus (above). Invitations in the mail is one of my favourite parts of these things because people get so excited when they recieve them. The dress code was 'dress for dinner' and guests were advised NOT to plan to drive home.

The Cowboy and I got very excited about the decorations, as we always do! We bought a heap of black and red candles from Dusk and borrowed black tablecloths and cloth napkins from my parents. We set the whole thing up very properly with the good silverware (a set of cutlery for every course!) and carefully considered the presentation of each and every dish - even the soup was served in mismatched family mugs to represent laziness and comfort (unfortunately no-one got this).

More unfortunate than the misunderstood soup presentation was the fact that we didn't think to take pictures until the night had - ahem - progressed. Next time, we will be more organised ...