jennylafleur | Victoriana Luncheon

I'm happy to report the Victoriana Fete was a great success! I had a wonderful time, the food was fabulous and the company even better. Thanks to Dad volunteering to be our Chef for the day (Chef Blanc-de-Blanc) my simple little Fete morphed into a 6-course luncheon (with wines!). We are insane!

The food went off well, thanks to lots of pre-planning and excel spreadsheets with Dad. And of course the help of my kitchen ~~slaves~~ helpers

gilded_garb &

girliegirl32786. They helped me clear plates, pour the wine and serve. We make such a good team. It was a lot of work but it was a lot of fun. I don't expect to do anything like this for a good long while though! Whew!

The Menu:

Each course had it's corosponding beverage too:
hors d'œuvre - Blanc-de-Blanc Champagne
fish - Chardonnay or Pinot Grigio
entree - Shiraz (Penfold's Bin 128)
cheese - Ruby or Tawny Port
dessert - coffee, & more champagne & port

We also had an alternative entree for my vegetarian guests, Wild Mushroom Ragoût in puff pastry. I nibbled off of Aubry's plate and that was tasty too - yay! I'm getting more comfortable with working around everyone's food allergies and diet restrictions, it's challenging but fun! I think my favorite course was the Stilton with local honey, walnuts and port - it really hit the spot! The creamed carrots were an untried recipe from the Titanic cookbook and they turned out to be pretty fabulous too.

I'm happy to say my cake was good too, a huge thing since cakes are my weak point in baking. The marzipan was surprisingly easy to make, the marzipan roses not to much. Apparently I suck at making marzipan roses, Dad ended up making them all for me. Hee.

My outfit came out wonderfully, as did my hair (I watched a lot of Daniel Deronda last week to figure out the hair!) and I felt very much the pretty, pretty princess. I totally need more bustle in my life! For some reason all the pics of just me have the neighbors oddious shed in the background (blah) so I'll need to wear it again and take better pics. Oh darn! :>

After the rest of the party left

gilded_garb,

girliegirl32786 and I went outside for more pics and ended up in the woods behind my house for silly pics - it was such a ridiculous thing to do in our frocks but SO fun! After that we stripped down to our frilly Victorian undies and spent the evening drinking the open bottles of champagne, sparkling lemonade and wine - plotting and planning costumes for CosCol. A perfect way to end the evening.

The next day we were off to DC to see the pre-Raphaelite exhibit at the National Gallery (which was wonderful!).

gilded_garb had never been to DC so it was really fun to show you the sights (there's the White House! See an obese squirrel!). Hee. The picnic on a bench on the Mall and the long cold walk back from the Lincoln memorial were bonding experiences we decided.

The weekend ended far too soon and the house is now far too quiet! I am looking forward to catching up on my sleep though - we didn't do much of that!

My photos (plus a few favorites stolen from A&S!) are here:
The Luncheon | DC Trip

Other's photos:
Isabella - http://www.flickr.com/photos/jubileel/sets/72157625714693415/
Sara - http://www.flickr.com/photos/21105913@N05/sets/72157625732099741/
Aubry - http://www.flickr.com/photos/aubrytamar/sets/72157625864026594/

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Wow, This sounds like the event of the season!

Thanks - it was a lot of fun!

That sounds wonderful! I'm so sorry I had to miss it!

I know I wish you could have been there too!

Looks wonderful! (But now I'm hungry)

Thanks, yeah sorry about that. Hee. :>

How lovely! It sounds (and looks!) like you all had a wonderful time!

We totally did! Thanks!

Your outfit did turn out fantastically! I love it, and your HAIR!!!!!
The table looks so lovely, you really are the hostess with the mostest aren't you?! I wish I could have been there :'(

I was so pleased with my frock and my hair. i didn't have a change to do a trial-run so the whole time I was fixing my hair I was chanting "please let this work, please let this work!".

I know I wish you could have been there too! Am I going to get to see you this year at all by the way?

It doesn't seem very likely :( I was hoping and hoping to be able to get out for somehting this year, CosCon or CosCol, but looks like I won't be able to swing it. I had all my dresses planned and everything :'(
Money will be very tight this year, we're buying a house in Wales for Clare, and Mummy had to take out a small loan, so all expendable income will go towards paying that off I think. I am planning to look at last minute flights though, in April and August :) if there are any, and they're cheap enough, who knows ;) Costume Con would have been so perfect this year, the right side of the country, and I could have gone to New York (for shopping!) as well.
But, maybe I'm destined to only get out to see my favourite costuming buddies every other year? It's still better than never!!!!

Blah! I uderstand though, note how often I mange to get to the UK!

Wow. I have nothing to say but, Squee! Food looks yummy (that CAKE, hello!) and you all look great!

Thanks! :>

Oh my, Jenny Rose! I adore your entire costume and your hair is gorgeous! :) Just reading the menu too is making my mouth water... hehe!

♥ Casey | blog

Thanks! I really am addicted to Bustle now - it's so much fun to wear!

Oh I'm so glad to hear you're addicted to the bustle, maybe we can do some scheming :) Your dress is lovely and I love the hat!!

Looks like it was a wonderful party! Very Victorian indeed!

Thanks! The hat was a last minute thing since I didn't have time to make the one I had planned. Luckily Loren made the little tricorn for me last year so I threw some ribbon, velvet roses and feather on it and wore it - fun!

It was so much fun! Thanks for hosting me and for the DC trip. Real life is not at all as much fun :o(

Anytime!! Real life sucks, the only thing that makes it bearable are weekends like this! *hugs*

I had such a fantastic time! Thank you so much for hosting.

Miss you!

I'm so glad! Miss you too!

What an elegant luncheon you had! That was a lot of work. Kudos to you and your Dad!
Your gown was gorgeous, and you have such beautiful hair! I'm envious. I especially like this photo of you. http://www.flickr.com/photos/jennylafleur/5367580848/in/set-72157625728293099/ You could do some cropping on some of those photos and cut out the distracting backgrounds on some of them.
Thank you for sharing.
I totally understand the work. I'm catering a tea for 20 on Saturday.

You know how much work this sort of thing is then! It's fun though of course. I think next time I might just stay in the kitchen and join the party for dessert, I missed being in there with Dad. :>

Hi Jenny,
Can you tell me where you got the recipe for the Wild Mushroom Ragoût in puff pastry? I am always looking for vegetarian things to serve, and this sounded divine! Celeste

Actually I made it up - well I combined several online recipes to create the dish. A dangerous thing to do without a trial run but my chef has an excellent palette and the results were tasty thank goodness! I'll post my finial recipe for you later on... let me check that Dad didn't change anything at the last minute first. :>

If you could post the recipe I'd be ever so grateful! Celeste

It is hideously overdue I know but I posted the recipe here:
http://jennylafleur.livejournal.com/507522.html

Victoriana Luncheon

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Wild Mushroom Ragoût in puff pastry

Re: Wild Mushroom Ragoût in puff pastry

The Recipe

Re: The Recipe