Ninth Annual BBQ and Drink Our Excess Cellar

And the first in our new home. This event started off ten years ago to drink up our burgundy that was ageing prematurely and would go down the sink if we did not drink up soon!

Now that is all gone, the wine is fine, but still more in the cellar than we can drink alone. So first up was a trip to the rented wine storage to collect wine for this year's event.

We set up the gazebos on the green out the front with all the tables and chairs dragged out as well.

The new quick lighting bags of charcoal are a bit over-entheusiastic.

This gives you a good view of the Victorian terrace that was described in the old censuses as "officers quarters" - accommodation for the prison guards.

This year we hired a couple of burger flippers and general helpers called Max and Maddy who did a great job allowing Mary and I to talk to our guests. In fact so busy talking that I forgot to take any pictures until the event was starting to wind down and only the hard core guests were left.

The combination of Mary's peach up-side down cake and my ice-creams proved a winner.

A smaller turnout than previous years meant we only got through 30 bottles of wine.

As usual we will be dining on leftovers for few days (apart from what goes in the freezer) but that is not a problem as it was all delicious.

Eighth Annual BBQ and Drink Our Excess Cellar

Saturday 15-August-2015

We havered about having our BBQ this year but went for it as there was a free Saturday before we went to Italy and it didn't clash with Bob & Lynn's BBQ because they didn't have one this year. So out went the invites and in came the acceptances.

We outsourced much of the catering to Waitrose but the artisanal ice creams are my department.

Ice cream #1 Blueberry ripple. Starting with a home made custard, real vanilla, and added rum in the blueberry sauce.

Ice cream #2 Brandy Alexander. This one never sets fully so is soft scoop and always goes first.

Ice cream #3 Yogurt and raspberry. I had to sieve all the pips even though the recipe said it was optional because I hate the pips getting stuck between my teeth. I add some vodka to the raspberries but not enough as it set hard and took ages to soften enough to serve.

Thirty-eight people came and drank 40 bottles of wine. The more they drink the less we have to move when our house sale goes through.

We left it too late to arrange a burger flipper. All the nephews are too old for that stuff. They are all graduated and have proper jobs that pay real money. Instead our friend Grant did the honours for quite some time which allowed me to mingle and so we gave him some very tasty Riesling as a thank you.

Next year the BBQ will be on the green outside our new flat. Looking forward to that.

Edit: This was actually number eight, we skipped the bbq in 2013.

Annual BBQ 2014

Wandsworth, London. Saturday 16-August-2014.

Our seventh annual BBQ and wine cellar emptying event was back after a year's gap.

All set up ready for influx of hungry and thirsty guests...

Around forty people turned up over the course of the afternoon. We were ably assisted by our burger flipper Zoe which freed us up to mingle with our guests.

Some turned up late afternoon so we lit another barbecue bag and started a second tranche of cooking. We started at one in the afternoon and finished at one in the morning when the last visitors toddled off.

The next morning it was a trip to the recycling bank at the local tip to dispose of the evidence of a most successful party.

Seventh Annual BBQ

London, England. Saturday 15-September-2012.

We have had a summer barbeque every year since we moved in to our current house. Previous years have been designated "help us drink our excess wine cellar" but thanks to our friends' sterling efforts over the last five years we no longer have an excess of drinking wines. So this was a simple BYOB social.

This year we outsourced much of the catering to Waitrose, Cleavers (the local butcher) and Amirah's Kitchen (the local Indian) - the tandoori prawns and chicken in AK's secret green marinade went down a storm.



Full set of pictures on Flickr 20120915-bbq:

Our house is like Thunderbird Two. We have a series of Pods: the Christmas decorations pod (green and red), the Christmas decorations pod (gold), the holiday pod (flight socks, inflatable pillows, travel plugs, etc.), the walking pod (boots, sticks, map case, blister pack, etc.) and, not last, not least, the annual BBQ pod (plastic plates, cutlery, glasses, etc.)



All now washed and back in the garage for next year.

Then it was off to the O2 Shepherds Bush Empire for a Marc Bolan 35 Anniversary concert...

4th annual "Help us drink our excess wine cellar" and BBQ

I can do no better than quote Mary's facebook status: 12 hours, 34 people, 41 bottles of wine. Think the BBQ went well!

As in previous years we co-opted (for a price) the nephew Tom to be burger flipper which left us free to mingle and chat to our guests.


Jane H, Laura, Tom

Caitlin was not sure about the paparazzi.


Alan, Caitlin, Sue, Bill, John

Some of the ususal suspects.


Bill, John, Kate, Andrea L, Ros

The ice cream that I spend several evenings making went down well especially the brown bread and the Brandy Alexander.

Then is was all Sunday to clear up - we gave the dishwasher a good hammering - and start packing for Italy on Tuesday...

A slightly fuller set of photos on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/markmclellan/sets/72157624670949061/detail/

Fourth Annual Drink the Cellar BBQ

Saturday was our fourth annual "help us drink our excess wine cellar"; wine that is ready for drinking and we would hate for it to go over the hill. As usual our friends rallied round.

The BBQ went well. 41 peeps and 36 bottles. As expected we over catered so it is lamb burgers for a month for us. And while clearing up we discovered 24 lost sweetcorn under the sink. Succotash anyone?

Starters included Italian meats we brought back from Italy last weekend:

• capocollo
• bresaola
• salami piccante
• lonzino

And Mary's excellent Smoked Mackerel Pate with Cucumber Relish

Mains were lamb burgers, some spicy Mexican sausages and chicken thighs marinaded in Japanese soy sauce, ginger and honey. The magic ingredient was employing my nephew Tom as burger flipper. He did an excellent job which meant that Mary and I could mingle with our guests without worrying about carbonised food.

Desserts I spent the evenings of the week before preparing - giving the ice cream maker a severe hammering. All made from a base of proper cream and egg yolk hand-made custard with fresh fruit:

• raspberry
• blueberry ripple
• pineapple and stem ginger
• honey & hazelnut
• strawberry sorbet

Previous attempts to clear the cellar:

• 2007: http://blog.mmenterprises.co.uk/2007/08/social-double-header.htm
• 2006: http://blog.mmenterprises.co.uk/2006/08/bank-holiday-barbeque.htm

Not sure what happened to 2008 but I suspect overshadowed by posts about the London to Paris Bike Ride training

PS. 15-Sep-09.
This is what the cellar looked like 2½ years ago and, in fact, it is much fuller now because we brought a load of wine back from the wine merchants and had to put in a more racks to accomodate them:

London to Paris - Training 09

Pump it up when you don't really need it.
Pump it up until you can feel it. *

We have been following the suggested training plan from The Stroke Association religiously thanks to Mary. Last Sunday morning before our BBQ we were out of the house at 07:40 to do 2 hours round Richmond Park before breakfast. Then the rides and gym during the week.

This weekend (Monday was a public holiday in the UK) we did 2, 3 and 5 hours - 30, 40 and 70 miles respectively. Cyling round the New Forest with fellow entrant Lynn it was a far more scenic ride that the environs of London. We were averaging 13-14 mph which we were pleased with, all the training has paid off. Honourable mention should go to Lynn who came with us on the latter two rides despite a raging sore throat which meant broken sleep and hardly any food.

A month back I treated us to a proper stirrup pump only to discover that my hand pumping had only inflated the tyres to about 3 bar (45 psi). At the recommended 6 bar (90 psi) for the hybrid it was like having cast iron tyres. You feel every bump and pot hole. On the road bike the pressure was 8 bar (120 psi)! Going over the cattle grid it was definitely as case of "Gentlemen please be upstanding" though Lynn said she quite enjoyed the rumble strips :-O

* Pump It Up - Elvis Costello

Social Double Header

Middlesex Sevens and a Barbecue.

Sometimes on a Monday morning I joke that I come into work for rest. It feels a bit like that after this weekend.

Saturday was The Middlesex Sevens - an all day rugby knockout tournament at Twickenham complete with a picnic in the car park or "Tailgate party" as Americans would call it. It was the usual suspects of Bob&Lynn and Tim&Sarah. We had two spare tickets and persuaded Andrea and Christine to join us with the promise of a display of muscular thighs (on the pitch of course). Unfortunately T&S were unable to make it because of a blocked drain and flooded basement of the smelly variety.

The rugby was of variable quality as was the weather. It was all a bit gray and damp but not as damp as two years ago ["Middlesex Sevens in the Rain"]. We had even packed a gazebo but this year they changed the regulations and we discovered that only umbrellas were allowed in the car park. Still the rain mostly held off. Andrea and Bob&Lynn came back to stay with us.

Sunday we had a barbecue and invited people come and help us drink up our surplus stock of ready-for-drinking Burgundy. Given the forecast was not brilliant we bought a second gazebo from Argos. Our three guests, Bob, Lynn and Andrea, were stars and helped set up the gazebos, wash up the picnic glasses and generally get ready for the crowds. And crowds there were.

We reckon we had 44 guests - twice the number of last year's event -and they made a big dent in the '98 Chassagne-Montrachet Premier Cru from Bernard Morey and the 2000 Volnay from Nicolas Potel. To go with the ice creams we had a Sauternes '01 Cuvee D'Exception - rumoured to be declassified wine from "one of the greatest Châteaux in Bordeaux".

It seems to have been a most successful and enjoyable event but, as is often the case for the hosts, Mary and I were so busy rushing around seeing to everybody that we had no time to chat to our guests. However they made up for it by talking to each other.

Bank Holiday Barbeque

Although Monday was a public holiday in the UK we actually held our barbeque on the Sunday. Mary was an absolute heroine, she did 99% of the preparation catering for an expected 32 guests. I hobbled about and did a little work that could be done sitting down like podding and skinning broad beans and skewering chicken yakatori.

It had been raining on and off all weekend but fortunately the rain held off during the afternoon and early evening. About 20 people turned up and the whole event went very well. The bread-maker and ice cream-maker had been working hard as well producing three different flavoured breads and four different ice creams all of which proved very popular.

A colleague and his wife did not turn up and I was sure that they had assumed the BBQ was on Monday. Sure enough they turned up 24 hours late and so we had a very pleasant impromptu dinner party with all the left-overs from Sunday.