As you probably know from reading my earlier blog post, Bine and I were married for 25 years last Monday. On the day itself, unfortunately, we both had to work and therefore went out for dinner together after work. In the evening, my parents and a couple of good friends came by for a cup of coffee with cake and a drink.
But of course, we also wanted to throw a (Corona proof) party for the rest of the family and friends so we did that last Saturday :). I made the invitations myself because making cards is one of my hobbies. We had both taken Friday off to do the shopping and make preparations. Bine cleaned up outside and I was busy inside with preparing snacks.
In Slovenia, it is costumery at parties to mainly serve meat from the BBQ. At a »standard« Slovenian party you get čevapčiči (seasoned minced meat rolls), neck chop, and chicken. In addition, there is usually sliced tomato, onion, and bell pepper and, above all, a lot of bread. In a more elaborate version, they will also serve baked potatoes, grilled zucchini, and, for example, a macaroni salad. I wanted to do it differently this time. Because my parents had just arrived from the Netherlands the weekend before, I had asked them to bring some cold salad, because I wanted to serve a typical Dutch »cold buffet« for once. I wanted to decorate the salad with pickles, pearl onions, ham rolls, mayonnaise, etc. And of course some delicious deviled eggs and fresh baguettes from the bakery in Dvor. Nom nom!
The last time I went on the Dutch tour for a Slovenian party, was when I turned 40, so 8 years ago (sshhhtttt!). As the tradition prescribes here, a big party had to be given for the whole village, about 60 people. My parents arrived from the Netherlands just a few days before the party and were able to bring a few things with them. I had decided to serve chicken with satay sauce and Limburg flan in addition to the standard Slovene BBQ meats and salads. Delicious! Well, that’s not what they thought about that here in the village;). Now I had made the mistake of putting the meat in the satay sauce, instead of serving the sauce separately. Everyone politely took a small scoop to taste it and that was it. They didn’t like it, meat with a »sweet« sauce. I had kilos of chicken and liters of satay sauce so there was a lot left. We were still eating it all week :D. Had I served the sauce separately, at least the chicken would have been eaten, haha. Fortunately, we also had »normal« meat, but that was not enough then and so we had to go and buy some extra in between. The flan went reasonably well, but not everyone was really enthusiastic about that either. Fortunately, I didn’t mind eating that all week afterward ;).
This time, the guests were almost all Dutch or “mixed” couples and the cold buffet was a success. Of course, I made way too much, as always, but we ate the rest the next day :). My father played the accordion and together with my mother he had prepared a nice rhyme about us, which they recited together. And we also had beautiful weather. The five-year-old triplets of our good friends even took a dip in the pool for a while! All in all, we have been incredibly spoiled and are very thankful for so many lovely people around us. It was a very successful day.
Arlette you have a great family my dad also played the accordion however my dad quite playing along time ago. Love the music.
Thank you :). My dad has been playing ever since he was 12 years old. My parents actually met at the accordion lessons when they were 14 and 12 years old and have been together even since.