It's all in the game: A duel birthday party.

This was to be a duel affair (not with drawn swords) it was a celebration in BBQ form for Linda’s and Martins Birthdays.

The running wax did make a nice pattern over the top of the natural pinewood dresser

My first job on arriving at Mariannes and Maritins apartment was to get the BBQ stoked up (Mariannes hair drier came in very handy) The girls went into the kitchen to do their salads and other finery's. ME MAN, ME MAKE FIRE AND HUNT!!!!

The amuse bouche

Linda had bought some of those very large North African dates (Moroccan I believe) had slit and stuffed them with semi-cru fois gras. Marianne had made some Devils on horse back (prunes wrapped in speck) which with the black and green olives, made a wonderful start to the evening.

Next came a wonderful chilled cucumber, dill cream soup, with marinated crayfish tails.

This was followed by Tandoori prawns; Linda had marinated some prawns in a Tandoori paste (I do believe it was from a Mamtas) and impaled them on skewers, these where first onto the pyre!

The next course was Spatchcocked Quails.

These I had done them late morning and they had been languishing in a lemon, herb, olive oil bath ever since.

six nice birds awaiting being seen to!

I first picked them over to remove any remaining feather and stubble (I do believe this is called epilation in female circles), washed them inside and out.

Next cut out the backbones with a pair of kitchen scissors. Removed any blood, pieces of lung and crop that remained.

Turned them breast uppermost and pushed them down onto the board, you should hear (and feel) a bit of a crunch.

Next push skewers through both legs and lower bodies and through the wings and the breast this keeps them in the flat position and the sticking out part of the skewers makes for easy turning on the BBQ.

I then made the marinade; this consisted of the rind of a whole lemon . The rind was chopped very fine, a desert spoon of rosemary , a desert spoon of Thai basil and a crushed clove of garlic,

this was all put into a mortar with some very course salt and pounded to release the natural oils. Next added a good slug of olive oil and the juice of half a lemon.

Then added half a tea spoon of marigold vegetable stock powder and a turn of chillies from the mill. Mixed all together and then poured it over the quails and gave the girls a bit of a massage making sure they all had a slick sheen about them.

Place these onto the very hot BBQ, breast side up so that they cook through, turning for the last few minutes to crisp the skin, I find that doing them this way you get a wonderful juicy

This one is for Mamta (she wanted to see the finished article)

Lamb skewers (a bit Greek)

I now started started on the lamb skewers. (I had some lamb leg slices about 1kg) I removed the bone and any gristle (there isn't much on a leg)

cut it into rough pieces about 2cmx5cm, placed these in a bowl added some Herbs de Provence with a crushed clove of garlic, olive oil and a desert spoon of oregano, salt and pepper.