Fish and Chip Nights are always popular, although they do require a lot of organisation behind the scenes, researching possible chippies, getting menus and taking orders and money before the night. It is good to find somewhere which can deliver a large order – we tend to be in the upper twenties for order numbers – to the city centre.
Despite some complications everybody ended up well fed, but also not overwhelmed with excessive quantities of chips, which in a time when people are more aware of the issue of food waste, is a good thing.
Preparing Christmas Dinner for over 30 people involves quite a bit of preparation, planning and shopping for ingredients – even before the day of the meal. This year some of the items I won in the box of Christmas goodies which was second prize in the raffle at the Six Counties Kidney Patients Association Christmas meal could be put to good use.
The red box on the right contained stuffing and gravy granules which we used.h
We went to Wesley Memorial Church after lunch and got stuck into the preparation.
Tables set up in the John Wesley Room
Parsnips being peeled
Christmas puddings steaming
Some of out turkey rolls ready to go in the oven
What is Christmas Dinner without Sprouts
Crackers and table decoratoins
Stuffing ready for the oven
When our members and guests started to arrive Penny kept us entertained with game of Higher or Lower.
While the entertainment was happening in the Hall, the kitchen team were busy (in both kitchens), doing the final preparations.
We had turkey – supplied by Hedges Butchers, who not only gave us a good price, but provided cooking advice – pigs in blankets, bread sauce, roast potatoes, parsnips, sprouts, carrots, peas, and vegetarian options.
The main course was followed by real Christmas Pudding, or strudel, Viennetta, mixed fruits etc.
It was a lovely way to close the year for our members, and to say thank you to our guests who have supported the club in many ways.
Robin has been coming to Phab for many years, and we value his contributions in the form of the quizzes he arranges, the cups of tea he makes and his concerns for the smooth running of the club.
We also love a party, and although we can not dedicate a club night to every birthday, or we would never do anything else, Robin had just had a significant birthday, and Kelly’s brother Lee was available to do a disco for us.
We prepared food
Kathryn made coffee and chocolate cakes, Kelly’s mum make fairy cakes, various members brought contributionsThere was enough food to go back for a second round
Phab members discoing in the dark
Simon, posing as DJ !
We are grateful for the support of Robin’s parents, who joined us for the evening, to Lee for the disco, and to all the members who contributed both food and to the general party atmosphere.
Thanks to the efforts of the kind people who spent much of the day shopping, preparing and cooking, the Oxford Phab Christmas Dinner was a great success.
Many of our members went to town on the Christmas theme.
Let the feasting begin !
We wish all our members and the many people who have supported us a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Having taken orders beforehand – complicated by having had the previous Phab cancelled due to snow, a delegation went to collect our order.
The previous Noodle Night, and the one before that, our order had been very neatly labelled, but we must have picked a busy night. The boxes had been marked with numbers from their menu, but many of the numbers had not survived the journey to the church, leaving us with some detective work to do !
Fortunately we got them right and everyone enjoyed their meal.
We had stacks of pancakes, and a wide selection of fillings, bananas, chocolate sauce, squirty cream, golden syrup and, of course, lemons and sugar.
Some of the more adventurous tried pancakes with avocado – well worth the risk of trying something new !
We cooked our own Christmas Dinner this year, using both kitchens at Wesley Memorial. Several kind volunteers peeled potatoes, carrots, parsnips and sprouts, kept an eye on the real Christmas pudding kindly made for us, and – supervised by Mary – made sure everything went into ovens or onto stoves at the right time.
Helen organised games to keep everyone entertained.
We were very pleased to be joined by some of the members of Wesley Memorial Church who have supported us over the years. Setting out the feast
We were happy to have Banbury Phab come to our Easter Disco.
Before anyone else arrived a small team were busy in the kitchen making sandwiches.
The bread and eggs for the sandwiches and the cakes were donated by Tescos via the FareshareFoodcloud scheme, while crisps etc were donated by Oxford Phab members.
We ended up with quite a spread !
When Banbury arrived our disco got started.
After a bit of disco to work up an appetite we broke to eat, and play some games, such as “Heads or Tails”. As usual at Phab the prizes were largely chocolate based !, small Easter eggs, or chocolate bunnies.
We also had some drawings of Easter Bunnies, which also won prizes.
Then we went back to the disco.
Although very dark, if you know there are to wheelchairs circling each other you get a flavour of a Phab disco.
Throwing ourselves into the Hokey Cokey with lots of energy !
Here we are tucking into noodles and other dishes from Noodle Nation. Members had made their choices on our Quiz Night on March 17th, and we had let Noodle Nation know who had ordered what.
We collected the order and when we unpacked it the box was full of little individual orders labelled with who they were for. It made dishing up much easier.
We had our Christmas Party and Disco in the newly refurbished Hall at Wesley Memorial Church.
We also had some surprise visitors, and a birthday bonus !
