The Eighth Day of Christmas Party and Menu Ideas
Entertaining Themes and Recipes Based on Maids a-Milking
Nov 6, 2009
According to the song “The Twelve Days of Christmas”, the gift associated with the eighth day of Christmas was eight maids a-milking. Why not host a dairy themed party? Invite guests to dress up as Victorian milkmaids in long skirts, mob caps and aprons. Men could dress up as the Milky Bar Kid. Or throw an Egyptian themed party. After all, it was Cleopatra who, according to legend, liked to bathe in asses’ milk.
Host a Dairy or Egyptian Themed Party
Or think laterally and consider any word which includes a dairy related one as a theme e.g. butterfly. Decorate the house with paper butterflies and serve butterfly lamb chops glazed with redcurrant sauce or small fairy cakes which have had the top scooped off, butter cream icing put in the middle and the top halved and stuck in the butter cream so it looks like butterfly wings.
If an Egyptian theme is selected, cook up a feast of eastern Mediterranean dinner dishes based on tomatoes, red and green peppers, lamb, olives, chickpeas and rice. An authentic Egyptian lamb stew or beef wrapped in vine leaves would go down a treat on a cold winter’s evening. Invite guests to arrive in appropriate fancy dress such as Cleopatra wigs and pharaoh costumes.
Dairy based dinner dishes could include quiche, chicken pan fried in butter or served with a creamy mushrooms sauce or anything in a white or cheese sauce. Think about milk shakes, ice cream, choux pastry filled with cream and so on. Or, perhaps combine the two themes – go Egyptian for the main course, dairy for the dessert and finished off with a nice cheese board. This recipe for syllabub is just divine.
Old Fashioned Syllabub Recipe
Ingredients (serves four):
- 3 oz caster sugar
- 2 tbsp brandy
- 2 tbsp sherry
- 1 lemon
- ½ pint whipping cream
Method:
- Grate the lemon rind into a small dish
- Squeeze the juice from the lemon onto the grated rind removing any pips
- Let the lemon peel soak in the juice for a couple of hours
- Whip the cream until it forms stiff peaks
- Add the brandy and the sherry to the soaked lemon peel
- Slowly fold the lemon mixture into the whipped cream
- Serve with brandy snaps, sponge fingers or crushed macaroon biscuits
Readers may also be interested on this article Themed Parties on the Twelve Days of Christmas for further information on the popular Christmas song. If these ideas based on egyptian queens and dairy products don’t appeal, why not consider those offered in the articles The Seventh Day of Christmas Party and Menu Ideas or The Ninth Day of Christmas Party and Menu Ideas?
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