Swedish lunch

The last few days have been very hectic. Didn't realise how relaxed I was being about leaving work until it was time to go for the day and I realised everything would have to be packed up and put into my car.

Went for a drive later Friday night all the way to Aburi. It was lovely, the view of Accra from that side of town, the fresh air, the silence.

Then, Saturday morning, I was off to L and J's beautiful house in McCarthy hill. For weeks we've been planning a Swedish lunch for L's mum's 60 birthday party to remind her of her many years in Sweden over twenty years ago. L's sister A also came over and we spent the whole of Saturday getting most of the preparations out of the way for the lunch on Sunday. Luckily my mum had given me loads of her tips and recipes to help us cook.

We prepared Toast Skagen (toast with a seafood filling on top) as a starter, Smorgastarta (sandwich cake)

for the main course, beef filet with mushroom sauce and potatoes also for the main course, then jordgubbstarta (strawberry gateau),

karleksmums (chocolate squares), chokladbollar (chocolate balls) and syltkakor (jam cookies). They really were pampered! We even remembered the seafood allergics and the diabetics.

Luckily for us, L got a chef to prepare the main beef and potato meal, but it was still a lot of hard work preparing the rest for up to fifty people.

Although it rained, this was only to our advantage as the guests came slightly late and we were able to finish on time. Yesterday we also spent the whole day on our feet, serving, instead of laying it out buffet style.

I think they all really enjoyed it, the atmosphere the food and being able to sit down and have it all brought to the table, rather than the traditional buffet style functions. Most importantly, the birthday girl, Auntie E seemed to enjoy it all.

For us working behind the scenes, I don't think we realised how tiring the whole weekend had been until last night. When I got into bed, my feet were tingling from tiredness and I thank my lucky stars I'm not working today. The day is going to be spent relaxing at home, blogging and munching on some karleksmums!