Welcome to Feast Glorious Feast!
I’m Chloe Edges and I want to help you feast like a king everyday. OK, maybe not every single day but lets make more meals just that little bit special. And stress-free.
A “Feast” Defined
Definition of feast in English:
NOUN
1 A large meal, typically a celebratory one. ‘a wedding feast’
1.1 A plentiful supply of something enjoyable.‘the concert season offers a feast of classical music’
2 An annual religious celebration. as modifier ‘a feast day’
2.1 A day dedicated to a particular saint.‘the feast of St John’
2.2 British An annual village festival.‘the feast was the highlight of the village year’VERB
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com
1 Eat and drink sumptuously. ‘the men would congregate and feast after hunting’
1.1 feast on Eat large quantities of.‘we sat feasting on barbecued chicken and beer’
1.2 with object Give (someone) a plentiful and delicious meal.‘they feasted the deputation’
In my eyes, a feast isn’t really about quantity. Its more above variety. And sometimes its just about being mindful of the food I eat and the way I present it.
One of my favourite meals is a selection of steamed and fried dumplings, Japanese sticky rice, some kind of sesame veg, maybe a little chicken and a small bowl of miso soup.
I can whip that up in 30 minutes after a days work. I pop it all in little bowls on a tray and I feel like I’m having a banquet for one on a Wednesday night!
I also love to entertain or simply ‘have someone over for dinner’. Every so often I host a themed dinner for up to 15 people. It could be an early Christmas lunch, an Asian themed banquet or a take on a thanksgiving dinner.
I like to research and plan my menu, make lots of little courses of sharing food and make the event a little special. I might set the table in a themed way or make some decorations. I want this site to show you how to do this too. Without stress.
Feast or Dinner Party?
Call it what you will. I like to call it a Feast because “dinner party” always sounds so formal and off-putting. And what I do is neither formal nor stressful.
I’m a huge fan of getting ahead of the game and planning menus which will take me out of the event as little as possible.
And do you know what,? If I burn all the food, a recipe just doesn’t work, the oven breaks down or I drop everything on the way to the table….who cares! I order a takeaway, have another drink and enjoy being with friends and family!
Costs
I am pretty frugal and I want to tell you have to have lovely creative meals without breaking the bank.
It’d be lovely to spend £50 on flowers for the brunch table like Ina Garten. Or £250 on fancy fairy lights to bedeck the garden like Nigella. Or however much Jamie Oliver must spend on wooden chopping boards. But I live in the real world like you!
Ikea, Poundland, Tiger & Amazon et al are my friends.
One of the best ways to help with costs is to ask the people coming to the meal to bring something specific rather than odd bottles of wine.
Ask for specific drinks for your planned cocktails, a plant for the decorations, a specific pack of napkins that you want for the table setting. Or even dessert if they’re that kind of friend. And if all else fails, you can always ask everyone to pitch a fiver or a tenner into the pot and go and buy everything you need that way!
My Recipe Style
I originally started blogging as my food photos on Instagram and Facebook kept attracting comments like “Wow that looks amazing – I could never make that”.
To which my response was always along the lines of “Of course you can!”. But then I found that I needed a forum to tell them how. The problem was that I am an instinctive cook, I neither followed or wrote down my recipes! And so the learning curve began.
I always try to write my recipes with the novice or under-confident cook in mind. I try to write my methods in a sensible time order using the whole quantity of the ingredient in the recipe text.
I’ll never write “add the flour” and expect you to refer back to the list of ingredients to work out how much flour you need. This is my biggest bugbear when following other recipes and its how I usually go wrong!
I’m also pretty relaxed about quantities and the flexibility of ingredients. Of course there are some recipes like pastry where the quantities are a little more inflexible but with most things, I’m an advocate of “just try it, whats the worst that can happen?”. (And if you’re really not confident, just ask me first!)
You’ll find my suggestions on how to be flexible with recipes in every recipe post. I’ve also given you some guidance about how to prep ahead and what to do with any leftovers.
I am neither vegetarian or vegan but sometimes I do cook for them. And so I’ve included suggestions in every recipe how to make that recipe suitable. I’ll be honest, I struggled on some. Poached eggs will never be vegan and my ginger glazed ham will never be suitable for veggies!
How Feast Glorious Feast Works
There are two ways that you can use this site.
By Recipe
You can dip in and out of individual recipes just like on the majority of food websites. Each of my recipes is presented individually with the ability to amend the serving size.
Just want a simple one-dish meal for 4? No problem! Have a look at my recipe index or use the search facility to find what you’re looking for.
By Feasting Menu
Fancy a Feast? Have a look at my feasting menus where I’ve grouped my recipes into collections. There are suggestions of what serving sizes to use for gatherings of different numbers, ideas for decorations and table settings plus other helpful hints and tips like how to get ahead and what to do with any leftovers.
About Me
Having spent 12 years working in the insolvency industry, I recently decided it was time to make a life change. I decided to indulge my well known passion for food, recipes, entertaining, baking and faffing around on the internet into something a little more like a career!
And so after 10 years living in that there London and a couple of years hobby blogging, I have left my job, left London and moved to my hometown of Grimsby (yes, just like Kevin from Strictly!).
I now live in the lovely house that I’ve owned for 6 years with my Dad and the two young cats we recently adopted. Meet Dashi and Miso. Yes I named them after Japanese seasonings.
While living in London I was a member of the Women’s Institute for over 7 years. Despite this I’m not a huge fan of jam! I spent the last year as part of the organisational committee. It was special. And not to be repeated.
I was also a member and then part of the organisational committee for the lovely Band of Bakers group in South East London. Maybe I’ll start a northern branch one day….watch this space!
Find Out More
I love to hear from folks whether its to tell me that you tried a recipe, if you have a question or just want to comment on how yummy something looks!
You can get in touch via any of my social media channels on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, via my Contact Me page or by commenting on any of my recipe posts.
Please feel free to share my content on social media if you like what you see! There are sharing buttons on every post and each post includes an specific image which you can pin to your Pinterest board. Feel free to follow me over there too!
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