It's that time of the year ! (part 1)

Ho ho ho, it's Christmas all over London!

First of all, let's talk about the new place-to-be in Notting Hill: JB&M's Private Dinner.

As everybody is going back home for Christmas, JB (my flatmate) and I decided to throw this little dinner party to say each other goodbye and enjoy an experimental home-made meal (we cooked a turkey for the first time in our entire existence) with a few friends.

Christmas is all about sharing a magical moment with people you love. So we did our best to offer a nice menu:

Special thanks to JB for being an incredible cookmate, Gab for being the best Conchita, Niccolo for the Bossa Nova, our guests for showing up and enjoying the meal, the kitchen for surviving the preparation and Mr Locksmith for helping us getting out of the building ;)

Appetizers
Home Made Mulled Wine

Salmon and Chive Rolls

Devils on Horseback

Cherry Tomatoes, Buffalo Mozzarella and Their Friend Basil

Meat Platter

Starter

Autumnal Salad with Honey-Mustard Dressing

(Blue Cheese, Pears, Walnut)

Main Course

Turkey à l'Orange

with

French Beans, Roasted Potatoes, Wild Mushrooms, Buttery Chestnuts and Roasted Peaches

Cheese Platter

Gorgonzola

French Camembert

Goat Cheese

Dessert

Tarte Tatin, Whipped Cream

Throwing a Christmas dinner is a lot of work but most of all, a lot of fun! So I hope this post will inspire you to do the same !
To be honest, we partied the night before and had only 4h sleep... and from 11am we never left the kitchen. So if we managed to do all this in that shape, I am sure that anybody can do it as well!
You'll just need bit of Jazz and a Bossa Nova kitchen utensil jam to get you in the perfect mood!

Merry Christmas to all of you !

Appetizers

Turkey à l'Orange... not ready yet!

Buttery Chestnuts

JB&M, Cooks and Crowns

Still not ready!

Mushroom mix ready to cook!

Dinner ready!

Tarte Tatin JB&M's Style

Kitchen disaster...

Kitchen disaster!

New Home !

It is amazing how fast and easy it is to find a new home in London. After spending 7 years in Switzerland struggling with the real estate market, what a relief it was to find a new home, sweet home, after only a week !

Maybe my roomate and I were just incredibly lucky, but I have the feeling that here in London everything moves so fast that the real estate market is constantly renewing their offers.

Of course it works completely different from where I used to live before... Here it is possible to negotiate the rent. For me this was totally new. In France or Switzerland the rent is setted by the landlord or the real estate company and you will never be allowed to bargain !

And what can you tell me about the periodic property inspection ? The agency is allowed to come to your home to inspect it anytime ! I had never heard of that before ! Anyway, I have nothing to hide but I think this is quite an intrusion in people's private life. But we can not do much about that as it is stated in the tenancy contract.

Welcome home !

I think I have a lot to learn about how things works in this island ! But for now I am happy about my choice of host country as I am definately loving living in London !

Not without saying that my flat is incredible and goes beyond all my expectations ! Two same-sized bedrooms (which seemed almost impossible), a fully equipped kitchen with a small wine cellar (I couldn't ask for more !) and best of all an illegal rooftop ! My roomate discovered that we could climb on the roof by the kitchen window, quite safely I would say !

So here is a little glass of wine to celebrate our new home, cheers !!

My rooftop