We do hen dos

Back when the skies were brighter and you could leave the house without a coat, (and scarf and hat), we took the Charlie and Evelyn's experience north for an atypical, August hen do.

The weekend began at a chalet which was transformed into "Lady Oxen of Ford's Northern Residence" for a murder mystery evening and a wonderful script, based loosely on the hen's life and written with amazing skill by one of the bridemaids, Jen. It was complete with unexpected telegrams, clues and fabulous costumes and characters (and even a couple of outfit changes for me as waitress)!

The tables, all set.


Hen do in progress

Working closely with Jen, and keeping our plans and even our involvement secret from the bride to be, we created a menu which incorporated the bride's favourite flavours including: Stornoway black pudding, lentils and white fish. Here at Charlie and Evelyn's Table, we like to make things easy for your events, so we were also able to take care of the food for the rest of the weekend.

We stocked the fridge for a continental breakfast and afternoon BBQ on Saturday and a full Scottish breakfast on Sunday, meaning all the hens had to worry about was contributing to the costs and enjoying themselves.

Our first hen do dined on:

Friday evening

To welcome
Crudités with butterbean and rosemary hummus (v)
Marrow and coconut soup shots (v)
Stornoway black pudding with baked apple

To start
Pea and leek soup, smoked salmon, cucumber

* Smoked salmon and cucumber, served with the soup (not pictured).

To follow
Pan fried haddock with mild lentil curry, citrus yoghurt and courgette fritters


To finish

Charlie and Evelyn’s house selection of cheeses including gorgonzola mousse served with homemade oakcakes, honey and walnut soda bread, grapes and “to die for chutney”.

Each hen also got to take home a mini jar of chutney as a momento.

Saturday

For breakfast
Mixed melon and strawberry salad
Vanilla yoghurt
Croissants and pan au chocolat
Orange juice and apple juice
Tea, coffee and milk

For the BBQ
Monkfish and pancetta skewers
Homemade beef and haggis burgers
Roasted vegetable skewers (v)
Field mushrooms with chilli oil (v)
Served with homemade ciabatta rolls
Tomato and red onion salad
Green salad Potato salad
Charlie and Evelyn’s house dressing

Sunday

For breakfast
Full Scottish: sausage, bacon, Stornoway black pudding, eggs, mushrooms and tomatoes, potato scones.
Juices, teas and coffees.

And, just to complete the story, here's what the bridesmaids had to say about the experience:

"This is a very belated thank you for creating such a wonderful weekend for us at Debbie's Hen 2010 in August.

You prepared the most wonderful menu, provided a truly outstanding service and took all the stress of catering for so many people away from us so that we could relax and enjoy the weekend.

Not only was the menu you prepared for the Friday evening absolutely delicious, the food for the whole weekend was amazing. I particularly loved the monkfish and pancetta skewers for the BBQ, oh and the home made bread - to die for, you could sell that in the local deli!

I cannot recommend you guys highly enough and tell everyone about how special you made the weekend for us and at an unbelievably reasonable price.

Rachel, thank you so much for getting invlolved in all of the activites and Chris, how you managed to cook such and exquisite meal for so many in a kitchen with no oven and only two electric rings I honestly don't know but it was some of the best food we have ever tasted - very talented.

Thanks again and hope to see you guys soon.

Take care
Jen, Sharon and Laura (Debbie's bridesmaids)."

*As you might imagine, we were a tad busy to take our usual photos, so thanks to one of the "hens" Graeme for these shots!