Birthday randoms

It was my birthday recently, and I threw together a few things for the inlaws - 32 adults and children. Having that many people when entertaining can be stressful, but seeing as my birthday is in the summer, I try to do it low key most of the time. Grilling and paper plates kind of low key. My husband grilled hot dogs, sausages, and chicken skewers. I prepped the rest in advance. I made potato salad, a tomato-red onion salad, watermelon with Halloumi, baguette slices with aged Calvados cheddar and gouda, and an ice cream cake.

Tomato-red onion salad with olive oil and balsamic vinegar

Watermelon cubes with fresh basil and grilled Halloumi

Rocky Road ice cream cake - crust, two layers of ice cream, and marshmallows and chopped peanuts in the middle. Garnished with caramel and chocolate sauce.

Gluten-free - I used Gluten-free digestive biscuits, pecans, and coconut flakes in the crust.

This was yet another one of those meals where I just threw things together with no recipe or preconceived notion of how it would end up. The potato salad was definitely one of those things. Boiled potatoes, radishes, celery, chopped pickles, pickle juice, creme fraiche, mayonnaise, dijon mustard, leeks, salt and pepper, and possibly any number of things I don't recall. The cake was also a little bit of this and a little that, but I looked at pictures of ice cream cakes on Google for inspiration before I decided what ingredients to buy. Still, at that point, it was up in the air. But, I wasn't stressed!