First to get described is my big birthday that was in 2007. It was one of those "milestone" dates so I decided to celebrate it by getting as many of my friends as I could to come down to a place very dear to me in North Cornwall and have a bbq on the beach. Now, normally this would be fine, my birthday falls in July so the weather tends to be pretty decent but oh no, not this year. I got down a bit early so I could settle in to the cottage, make sure I had all I needed and revel in being back at home.Some of my friends from London arrived the day before so we got them settled in a house up the road, being rented from friends , and then we went down to the beach to have a pre dinner glass watching the sunset. Then we went back and had dinner round my lovely table in the cottage. Dinner consisted of a wonderful leg of local lamb, roasted with garlic and rosemary, and served with a dauphinoise and some braised leeks. We rounded that off with a blackberry and apple crumble - delicious! - and we also consumed a goodly amount of wine, getting into the party spirit obviously...
The day dawned not so brightly, but I was not to be deterred so had already got plans in place to use the cowshed as was, parking as is, as a shelter for the food and people; luckily everyone was up for a good time! We went for a quick trip to the local fishmongers to get a couple of extras for the bbq as all the rest of it I had prepared already.We then headed down with all the supplies to get set up. The barrel bbq was put in position and the table laden with all goodies. We had a few salads - potato, tomato and green - lots of bread and sauces and some smoky bourbon ribs. Then we had some marinated mackerel and Larry the Lobster, it was all delicious and cooked to perfection by bbq chef extraordinaire Andy. The, at times, torrential rain was not noticed so much as we had plenty of liquid refreshment ourselves.
I hope that everyone had as much of a wonderful time as I did and the day ended beautifully...
