This week we had two lots of friends unexpectedly visit us at mealtime, not with the intention of getting a meal but we invited them to stay at short notice. Our first visitors, a Mum with two children, arrived just 'before' lunch, we kept it very simple and served boiled mashed egg as a savoury topping, home made raspberry jam, a pot of our bulk buy of real lemon curd which actually tastes home made and large plates of sliced bread. For desert we had a home baked Chocolate Fudgy Cake. We enjoyed several hours talking together, about four!
You may wonder how hospitality can fit into a frugal lifestyle but it doesn't need to cost very much if you keep it simple. I used to go mad if we had visitors coming, buying flowers for the table, the best tableware and getting out several choices of savoury toppings and every jam in the house! This perfectionism is overkill, it overwhelms the visitors and makes it a big deal for the host. True friends don't expect a big show, they just want to chat and eat enough to not be hungry, else they will just go home to eat.
In this case we were having egg because I had a really good offer at the Supermarket the day before, I purchased a dozen eggs for the price of 40p! Unbelievable, as I have shopped around recently for eggs and usually purchase the cheapest which work out at almost 10p per egg, so this offer saved me about 80p on the normal price. One of the loaves of bread were reduced to 17p also and we usually buy the cheapest at 49p per loaf. The raspberry jam was free as my Dad grew the fruit and my Mother-In-Law provided the sugar and my Daughter 18 made it! The lemon curd was part of a special bulk buy deal and was cheap even though it tastes of real lemons and is divine.
So as you can see the meal wasn't costly, we simply chatted and went for a long walk on the land for entertainment so that didn't cost us anything. They even brought us a cake as a gift so we kept it for the next day. We definately didn't lose anything by showing hospitality to these friends.
The second visitor arrived just 'after' we had eaten. He arrived with something to loan one of my Daughters. I had just been looking at the dish of Cauliflower Cheese sat in the centre of the table thinking that there was a lot left over, one of my children doesn't like it and hadn't taken any. When the visitor arrive I invited him to tea and he ate all the cauliflower cheese plus the left over french bread, there were even some baked beans left for him too. For desert he had a piece of the home made chocolate fudgy cake left over from our lunch. So we fed him completely on leftovers! We certainly didn't begrudge feeding this visitor, it was a pleasure and we got his company for a lot longer than if we hadn't fed him as he was on his way home from work and he was hungry.
Now I am looking forward to our next visitors, maybe we should invite some this time!
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