especially for me

I love a good challenge, especially when it seems it was designed just for me. This week's blogthis challenge runs as follows:

The Dinner Party

Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to plan a fabulous dinner party. You've been given a healthy budget, so don't scrimp!

Guest list - 8 people, dead or alive, real or ficticious.

The menu - will this be your very own masterchef moment, or is outsourcing more your style?

Is there a theme? What will be the entertainment for the evening? What will you wear? What will you talk about? Don't forget the wine!

Have fun planning, be as creative as you like. If you're creative, maybe even design the invitation. Make this an event not to be missed!

Hello, does this challenge have my name all over it or what?

Now: guest list

I'll be inviting Matt Preston, MasterChef judge just so I can see the look on his face as he tastes my food {hopefully he'll enjoy...}

I'll invite Ross Noble, because I think he'd be one of those comedians who are always 'on' and in an intimate setting reckon he'd get me and my guests giggling.

Also on the list is Amy Sedaris -it was a toss-up between her and her brother, but I've got to up the girl factor for this party so Amy's it.

My hubby will be there, cos I do all the prep-work and he sees to filling glasses and carving meats etc.

Amanda Keller will be another girly guest - I'm so digging her on Talking Bout Your Generation, she's quick witted and looked damn fine in that pencil skirt and red frilly blouse last night.

The Fug Girls from GoFugYourself - I'm going with the quick-witted theme tonight.

Finally, my last boy, hmmmmm, big call, but I'll go with Johnny Depp so when we need time out we can just gaze upon his calm beauty.

Now, it's my party so I'm going for a spring fling. We'd bring up a trestle table and pop it in the pavillion by the pool. And, as money's no object, I'm strewing the surface of my pool with pink and red rose petals, and covering it with a glass dancefloor. Vases of blowsy pink and red roses are dotted around the place, with bowls of flower heads serving as a centrepiece.

I like bitsy menus, so starting off with bowls of tasty nibbles, tapas-style, always works. We'd have spicy caramelised prawns, chilli lemon haloumi, warm rosemary and maple syrup mixed nuts, sauteed chorizo with a sherry jus, and strips of herb and chilli pita crisps - served with rose champagne cocktails.

For a main I'm doing my viking chops - a standing rib roast marinated and cooked on the bbq before carving into single man-sized cutlets. With it I'll serve a simple watercress, radish and cashew salad, roasted pototoes and beetroot with aioli dressing and a red wine, caramelised shallot jus. This will be accompanied by big hearty bottles of red.

For afters, I'll serve chocolate tart with fresh rasberries, creme fraiche and caramelised pistachios with a sticky semillion from the Hunter Valley {Margan perhaps?}

Finally, for those who linger, there'll be a cheese and fruit board and more fortified wines, and perhaps an espresso or two for those in a European frame of mind.