Test your sanity today – organize an office party

Anyone who has ever arranged a staff function or end-of-year office party knows, it is impossible to please everyone. No, that does not quite capture it – it is impossible to even please the majority! By time the party comes around, the co-ordinator’s sanity has been severely tested. If the party organiser goes missing you often eventually find them curled up in an office storeroom rocking back and forth, sucking their thumb and mumbling incoherently.

I was not going to let this happen to me. Well not again anyway!

This year I found it particularly difficult since I had already used all the venues in the area that met the criteria set by usual moaners: close to the office; sufficient safe parking (in Johannesburg – I ask you!); a varied menu, large enough for 80 people.

Save the date
Since I was battling to find this perfect venue I sent out a ‘save the date’ to at least book out the time in everyone’s diary in the meantime. I also asked staff to confirm if they could make it so we knew what numbers we were dealing with.

I genuinely had a few staff members respond that they “would only confirm their attendance once they knew where we were going”. By that time I was not quite my usual polite and demure self, reacting with “Either you can make it or not – you decide NOW!”

Menu selection
In order make sure the food could be brought out reasonable quickly I limited the menu to five options and asked staff to indicate what they wanted to eat in advance. Once again I received really intelligent responses like “I’ll have option 1 or 4”. What the hell?

In the end I do think everyone had a good time and enjoyed their meal. I also managed to get sufficiently inebriated to forget the idiotic comments and requests from the staff.

I have, however, realised a fatal mistake. Overall I did a great job in organising the party, so you can be sure they will ask me to do it again next year. Lucky me!


Review of the restaurant

Click here for a quick review of the restaurant we went to, who did a great job in accommodating our every impractical request.

Review: Bambanani Restaurant

Location: 85, 4th Ave, Melville, Johannesburg, South Africa
Date visited: 3 December 2010
Website: not yet operational

Rating: 7/10

Bambanani’s menu has something for everyone with their tapas being a great way to get the meal started. The Haloumi and Falafel were especially good.

For mains I had the Moroccan Lamb with couscous. The slow cooked lamb fell off the bone and melted in my mouth. My colleagues all also had positive things to say about their meals which included the Argentinean Steak and Teriyaki Salmon.

I did not have any space left for dessert but Bambanai had a variety of cakes to select from and I noticed that the desserts were served in perfectly sized bowls that were just enough to feed the ‘sweets monster’ within.

The restaurant does have a secure kiddies area with child minders. This is not really a draw card for me but I hardly noticed any children, so the babysitters must be doing their job well. The one thing I did notice (not having a child proof home myself) was the little step and mini seat at the toilet in the ladies bathroom. Again, not useful for me but I imagine essential for a little person.

I found that the trendy decor and ambience does not quite match the 90s ballads playing on the sound system. The restaurant has lovely wooden tables with couch areas scattered in between the dining areas. The deck on the front looks on to 4th Avenue (which is good if you are a paranoid joburger who would prefer to be his/her own car guard). Although I did access this space, totally avoiding the anxiety generated when I am around children, at the back of the restaurant there are tables under the trees.

Parking is a problem, but this is nothing new to anyone who regularly eats out in Melville. However, it seems that many restaurants in the area have closed so that leaves a bit more space for Bambanani visitors.

Overall, Bambanani is a great restaurant with a very accommodating management team. Their waiters were all very friendly and efficient. I would definitely recommend them.

Sunday Session #1 – 1 May 2010

Well, we did it. We had our first and very successful Sunday Session last night. We ate, drank, and were merry. We also managed to completely avoid those nasty ‘in anticipation of Monday’ blues that I suffer from on Sundays.

P & A were the first friends we asked to participate in the Sunday Sessions. For those of you who have not been following the previous blogs, Sunday Sessions are where I invite friends for dinner but they provide the recipe. They also need to teach us how to cook this food. We provide the beautiful table setting and the ingredients.

I am still a little awe struck by the confidence P & A showed in us by selecting a rather ambitious recipe: slow roasted lamb shoulder with garlic, rosemary and wine. This also called for us to start without them and get the lamb cooking from lunch time in order for it to be ready for dinner.

The new table set and ready for our guests

After several text messages, one email and two panicked telephone calls to P & A, my hubby and I had the lamb in the oven and wonderful smells wafting through the house. I do think our ‘teachers’ did not expect to receive the types of questions us culinary idiots posed, such as “Okay, the shiny side of the tin foil – must it be on the top or the bottom?”

I might add that the morning had been very stressful as well with not only trying to find all the ingredients, but since this was our first dinner party around our new dining room table, I also first had to purchase placemats, a tablecloth, and two makeshift chairs - we currently don’t have chairs and only have one bench.

Hubby and P checking the roast – batman to the rescue

The final touches by P & A – how wonderful to invite people to dinner and make them work!

For a starter I prepared a cream of tomato soup (a can of Denny’s ready to eat soup), with a smidgen of cream splattered on the top together with black pepper. This was complimented with three-cheeses breadsticks from Woolworths. Dessert was a Woolworths malva pudding and custard. You’ve got to love Woolies!

For mains we devoured roast lamb, with baby potatoes and crunchy mixed veggies. The gracious guests brought some lovely wine to accompany the meal and prepared mojitos on arrival which got us in the right mood from the beginning. Perhaps preparing the lamb in advance was a good thing because I would not have been capable after that injection of rum.

Our glorious meal

All in all, the event was a huge success with good food and good company. The best of all is that my man and I feel that we would be able to make this meal again for ourselves.

Here is the recipe which I can highly recommend:


Slow roasted lamb shoulder with garlic, rosemary and wine


Ingredients
• 5 peeled garlic cloves
• 1 full head unpeeled garlic (separated)
• 3 tablespoons rosemary leaves
• 2 large bunches of rosemary
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 shoulder of lamb (or leg of lamb)
• 4 peeled and quartered onions
• 150ml dry white wine
• 300ml beef/chicken/lamb stock


1. Heat oven to 140°C or 120°C if fan assisted
2. Using a pestle and mortar, make a paste with the 5 peeled garlic gloves, chopped rosemary and soy sauce
3. Slash the top of the lamb shoulder 5 or 6 times (make the cuts about 1cm deep) and rub the paste into these cuts. Spread the remainder of the paste over the flesh.
4. Place the large chunks of onion pieces, the unpeeled garlic cloves and half of the rosemary sprigs in the centre of a large deep roasting tin. Sit the lamb on top of the onions, garlic and rosemary. Season with lots of black pepper and a little bit of salt. Scatter the remaining rosemary over the lamb.
5. Pour the white wine (150ml) and the stock into the roasting tin and cover with a loose “tent” of foil, folding the edges tightly around the tin.
6. Roast in the oven for about 6 hours, until the lamb can be easily pulled from the bone using a fork.
7. Then turn the oven up to 170°C or 150°C (fan), remove the foil and roast the lamb for a further 20 minutes until the top is crisp.

Sunday Session Invite

My dear friends, P and A, have agreed to participate in my Sunday Sessions. Below is the email asking them to participate in my project. Who could reject this plea?







Dear P & A


I want to invite you around for dinner – but there is a catch... I will provide everything except for the recipe and ability!


Please, please, pretty please.
I was hoping you could teach this pathetic excuse of a cook how to make one of your favourite meals, nothing too elaborate or that would take too long – even bangers and mash would be progress for me. I am also pathetically fussy (no seafood, avos, livers, beetroot and the list goes on and on....) so it would be best to keep it simple and might take a little negotiation, but I will try to keep as open a mind as possible.


We can cook up a storm, dirty every dish in the house and then sit down to a good meal and drinks. I will make sure the table looks beautiful and we use my best crockery. I might even have dining room chairs by then! And nobody is allowed to do any dishes on Sunday nights – they won’t go anywhere until the maid comes in.


Let me know if you are keen or if I am off my rocker.


Cheers
LK



We hope to have the first Sunday Session in the next few weeks, so watch this space for feedback.

I don’t want to be fat alone!

My husband and I have been slowly packing on the kilos over the last few months. Admittedly I have encouraged him in this, since I don’t want to be fat alone! I also used to be the ‘skinny sister’ a long time ago, but she went and got herself into excellent shape last year and is looking very sexy, so that title is no longer mine.



This month one of my colleagues began a three-day diet. It involves three days of following a calorie limited eating plan and then for four days you eat normally. Repeat and rinse. This diet is not new to me and I had some success with it about five years ago, so there I was trying it again and on a weight-loss mission.


I experienced a few problems, over and above not having a spine and complete lack of self control. My husband is not on this diet. Anyone who has ever been the only one in the house on a diet does not need any more information and can empathize with me. This situation is especially hard when you generally prepare the meals at home. On the second day of the diet night he walked through the door and promptly announced “I’m starving”. Over-sensitive (not to mention hungry) me took this to mean, “What’s for dinner?”


Since one of my diet tactics is to ensure that there simply is no food in the house he had to go to the shops to fetch some sandwich building goodies. It would seem that he does not either want to be fat alone because he brought back snacks that I just don’t have the ability to say “no” to.


The next day I nevertheless continued with the diet, even after the previous night’s ‘oops’, only to relapse once again on the third evening. Hubby and I stopped by one of our regular restaurants to devour a cordon bleu each. I savored every bite and also slugged down a giant strawberry daiquiri.


At this stage I have to stop and ask myself “Who the hell can’t stick to a three-day diet?”


I have speculated on my self-destructive actions and know that the word ‘diet’ is where the problem comes in. From the very first minute of ‘D-day’ all I want to do is eat copious amounts of everything you are not allowed on the diet knowing that some big, creamy pasta is watching me, waiting to pounce.


My three D-days are now over. A strange sense of peace has come over me. I can eat what I want, when I want. Yet I don’t have that feeling that I should eat like there is no tomorrow which prevails during the diet. Maybe I will finally end up losing weight now that the diet is finished.


The good news is that my husband did not even bother trying to diet or cut back. The result is that I am still not fat alone!

Sunday Sessions

I hate Sunday evenings. They really get me down. So I decided that I need to come up with something that becomes a special treat that only happens on Sunday evenings to beat to the ‘in anticipation of Monday’ blues. Thus the Sunday Sessions.


I am also a terrible cook. So to start with, Sunday Sessions will be an early dinner where I will beg one of my favourite people to show me how to cook something yummy and then we can enjoy the meal and wine together.

Now I just need to find out which of my crazy friends will be willing to participate in my bizarre little project.