It’s no secret among those who know me that I love throwing dinner parties, themed or otherwise, and for this one it’s no different. Out of our group of 4 ladies, I am the only child less one and with a less active social life than the others. I’m also the homebody that doesn’t have plans and things to do for most evenings (I’m not trying to sound sad, I absolutely love my life), and therefore love getting together with my friends and spend time with them. I usually have an idea for something weeks or even months (or years – Winter Greenhouse Cocktail night anyone) ahead of us getting together like this. For this time round it’s based on lots of November recipes from my Simple Things magazine, and when opening the spread I loved pretty much all about it so the invite message to my girlfriends was sent.

I will put all the recipes of foods, snacks and drinks in the ‘Eat’ section for you to make as well. I am changing several parts of the recipes due to dietary requirements of my friends and myself, as well as changing how I’m making it since our oven has died and I’ll venturing in baking flatbreads, shortbread biscuits and shortcrust pastry cups in my airfryer! All will be noted in the recipes themselves, for both the settings how it should be done and how I’ve done it. Wish me luck!

For food we’ll start with a “Warm Welcome” drink and some little bites with Queen Anne’s Lace Jelly, that I made earlier in the year. It will give us a chance to catch up and talk without any interruptions of child or partner (I think my husband will be upstairs with his computer game and order pizza).

This gets followed by the main meal of Chestnut soup with fresh baked spiced flatbreads, roasted – homegrown – Uchiki Kuri pumpkin & Cavolo Nero salad (warm).

Followed by a sweet treat to finish off the meal with Chai spiced shortbread and dried orange disks dipped in dark chocolate, decorated with chopped pistachios, dried calendula & cornflower petals from the garden, followed by some making. As well as lots of tasty things to eat and nibble on we’ll also be doing some wintery crafts. We’re painting candles with coloured wax and making dried orange slice hangings with fine twine and wooden beads. I’ll make sure to add those to the ‘Make’ section.

I’ve loved making all this and doing the prep. I ‘ve even put in an early Yule decoration – just because I can – above the dining table.