DINNER FOR 5

I have an ongoing theme dinner with 4 friends, usually it's in the form of a cook off, where they cook a dish and I judge the winner. Good deal for me :) This time we decided that we would dig out the oldest cookbooks in our collections and cook something from that. My oldest is from the time of the Roman Empire - Apicius - however it's not easy to find swan to eat these days.

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The only rule is that you cannot alter the recipe in anyway what so ever.

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So I used the Busselton Settlers cookbook, circa 1982 although the recipes are a lot older than that..

Annie and Perry went with a 1970's Womans Weekly BBQ cookbook..

And Karks and Marco chose the Recipes for Busy Mothers Cookbook published by the Nursing Mothers Association circa 1970's..

We started off with Campari and Soda complete with a frozen swizzle stick..

First course was Annies, stuffed mushroom caps with crab and herb butter, the recipe said to use tinned crab, Annie could only find crab in a jar = allowable.

Main course was Karks and Marcos, Flaming orange fillet steak with hot asparagus and jacket potatoes. Soooo 1970 hehe..

I had the dessert course and went with the baked apple, custard and cream pie. No doubt a huge hit in Busselton back then, god I felt sick after eating that..

All washed down with a 2004 D'Arenberg Galvos Garage, which is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc, all classic grape varietes and a very nice drop.

Gastronomy or rather 1970's cuisine was the winner on the night hehe!!