Downton Viewing Party Time Again

So I’ve actually cooked plenty of meals and even made some and took photos of some meals for this blog but who knows what happened? Life happened I guess.  And now we’ve had another Downton dinner, our 2^nd annual Viewing Party and there is so much to write about. This party occurred on the night of the finale, Feb 23^rd.

This year was like last year, I was busy working in Northern CA, finishing up a couple of weeks before the dinner. I thought that Dale and I would have plenty of time to get everything ready, 2 weeks off is like a year to me! Or so I wanted to think.

Last year we didn’t have time to eat our desert course and cheese course before the Downton episode started. This year we were determined to not repeat that, but rather have all courses finished before Downton started. We set the time to arrive at 6pm. I wanted for us to sit down at 6:45pm.

To get started I read the article on how to throw the perfect Downton party by Jessica Fellowes. The article advised to send a hand written invitation before the party. The invite had to say that we would be “at home” and ask them “to arrive at”. I found some nice plain cards that I could use. Unfortunately we were out of our monogrammed cards and there was no time to order more. I sent the cards to the Lord and Lady’s to be invited. I'll attach a photo of one response when I find it.

Selecting the wine

Dale and I sat down and made a master plan, unfortunately on Saturday before the party on Sunday, way too late. Then the master plan was not really a good working plan as I needed one that would have actual flow of the food. My master plan is a list of what food goes on the stove and when, when each dish gets served and when with which wine.

By Sunday morning, in addition to cleaning the house I made my master plan and we chose the wine. I was already on a really late start.

This year our menu contained both gluten free courses with a vegan alternative.

Here is the menu we made:

1. Appetizer: Smoked Oysters, Bruschetta, Baguette,    Iron Horse Chinese Cuvee, Pimm’s

2. Soup:  Cream of Potato Soup     Navarro Gewurztraminer 2012                      vegan alternative: soup with no cream

3. Fish: Poached Salmon with Mousseline Sauce   Armida Chardonnay 2010

 vegan- Vegetable Pie

4. Meat: Boeuf Bourguignon     Downton Abbey Claret 2012

vegan- Mushroom Loaf with Red wine sauce

5. Palate Cleanser: Punch Romaine

6. Fowl: Chicken Lyonnaise      Pipestone Grenache Rose                                 

vegan- Vegan Chicken Strips sautéed with a vegan Lyonnaise sauce

7. Salad: Fig Salad  Champagne

8. Desert: Triffle with a Gluten Free Version, Vegan Ginger Cookies

9. Cheese: Cheese, Fig Compote, Baguette