Celebrate whenever you like

My birthday is on a ridiculous day. It’s so close to New Year and Christmas that everyone is partied out. Celebrations as a result tend to be a little on the half hearted side. I also know that it’s usually the last day before going back to work and facing up to January.

This year I made the decision to hold off on celebrating until the first weekend in February. By a rather marvellous coincidence this turned out to be the same weekend as a local beer festival.

The result – a wonderful afternoon and evening with friends. The atmosphere at the festival was great. Everyone had been looking forward to getting together. No one felt under pressure to do anything. The selection of drinks on offer was suitable varied even to please the non-beer drinkers.

As a bonus I also felt less need to actually celebrate on the date of my birthday. This made for a relaxed day which actually lead to celebrating with a couple of neighbours.

It’s totally clear to me. Bah to old fashioned traditions of actually celebrating your birth on the day of the year you were born. Unbirthday celebrations are the way forward.

What's in my lunchbox this week?

I love it when we entertain. It means that that fridge is full of unexpected goodies and exciting leftovers. Dear Heart and I hosted Brunch club this weekend with a Weekend at Bernie's theme including inflatable man. I made up a variety of canapes on and for the non-vegan Dear Heart had bread, crackers, cheese and pate of on offer. This week's lunches then will be featuring some variation on:

Crackers/oatcakes/pumpernickel/rice cakes/baguettes with vegan cream cheese/faux tuna/herby yeast pate/hummus.

From top right:

Dairy free strawberry cheesecake - an indulgance form the freezer section a Holland and Barrett

Salad - little gem and iceberg lettuce, radishes, peppers.

Canapes - pumpernickel or rice cake base with one of the spreads listed above with a garnish of pepper, gherkin or olive. Gaps filled in with a tomato and cheesy chickpeas.

Oatcakes with margarine and vegan hard cheese.