Christmas in July

'Twas the night before Christmas (in July), when all through the house

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse...

Except for a crazy onslaught of food bloggers and friends who were kindly invited by Billy and The Pom to join them in celebrating Christmas in July! Thanks for letting us invade your kitchen and your house for the night :) 

Of course Christmas just isn't Christmas without being able to gorge yourself on all kinds of food. And indeed we had a great big feast in store that went on well into the night.

We kicked off the night with some snacks and a cheese platter brought by Shez including her yummy home-made labne.

Then the table was set, the Christmas music started playing, a picture of a crackling fireplace appeared on the tv screen and dinner was served! We all marvelled at Billy's beautiful bread wreath which he served with some delicious truffle butter.

Helen brought some home-made chicken liver parfait which was smooth, light and creamy. I couldn't get enough of this and I slathered this thickly onto chunks of bread.

Minh dished out some sweetcorn soup which was awesome and full of sweetcorn flavour. I could've had a billion bowls of the stuff if it wasn't for all the food still to come.

Billy also made some caramelised onion and goats cheese tartlets which were so addictive, especially with the sweet onions and the buttery pastry. Sir D couldn't get enough of them!

Shez and Richard constructed this cute antipasto hedgehog - a honeydew melon with skewers of prosciutto, cabanossi, brie, honeydew melon, tasty cheese and olives, complete with eyes and nose! Almost too cute to eat :)

Karen and Shaun made some super tasty meatballs with a creamy white wine sauce and lingonberry jam (not pictured). These were sitting in front of me at the table and even though I knew there was loads more food to come I couldn't help but keep going back for more!

Simon also cooked up some pan fried angel-fish fingers with a dipping sauce which were deliciously crunchy.

Onto the meats! Billy was slaving away in the kitchen all afternoon, roasting pork and turkey and ham, and soon there were multiple slices of meat on everyone's plates! The apricot glazed ham was so good with the mustard + glaze as a sauce and omg the roast pork had the most awesome crackling ever. Billy also some roasted some potatoes in duck fat which were gone in a flash but I was too busy serving up my contribution of Maggie Beer's country chicken and mushroom pie so unfortunately no photos!

Don't worry, we did eat some vegetables too ;) There were brussels sprouts with bacon courtesy of Billy - my first time eating brussels sprouts and although they weren't bad I can't say I'm a big fan.

Helen made her roasted pumpkin salad with feta, and Karen also roasted a medley of mushrooms with garlic and thyme. Towards the end I was very grateful for the vegetables since it provided some respite from all the meat I was eating!

After some rather hilarious gift-giving, it was time for dessert! The Pom served up a ginormous Christmas pudding which reminded me of The Magic Pudding stories. It was flambéed at the table and served with vanilla custard.

Shez made a beautiful and boozy eggnog pound cake which was studded with glace cherries and accompanied by an eggnog cream. Pepe the cat got to the cream while we weren't paying attention and seemed to love it so it must have been good!

Steph made some individual strawberry, rhubarb and moscato trifles which were was beautifully light and fruity. Perfect for us because at this stage we had all stuffed ourselves silly with Christmas food!

Of course, being full wasn't going to stop us though and after a heated round of Pictionary we found ourselves eating some midnight snacks. Richard prepared a Fromager des Clarines with sparkling wine, garlic and thyme. After baking this in the oven it became lovely and gooey and the cheese was perfect for dipping slices of French baguette into.

We also had some pretty petit fours created by Karen which included light pillows of passionfruit marshmallow, chewy salted caramels with chocolate and rum cognac balls. Wheee sugar high!

Thank you to Suze who got up early to make brekky for us! I have no pictures to show for her efforts sadly but I can tell you that nothing is better than waking up to the smell and the sound of sizzling bacon on the frypan. And indulging in a breakfast of the crispiest bacon I've ever had, scrambled eggs, blueberry pancakes with Suze's butterscotch sauce as well as leftovers from last night :) Best Christmas in July ever!