After Saphirra’s ‘Come Dine With Me’ a few weeks ago, I must say that my confidence at hosting amazing dinner parties has somewhat waned. Read about that HERE.

Saphirra excels at entertaining and leaves nothing to chance – especially when there’s a prize up for grabs. She loves going out too and is always the last person to leave a party, which is usually the following morning! That’s okay though, because she always does the cleaning up before she leaves. (This is possibly the reason why she gets invited to so many parties!)

Mohotma Coatalay never fully got over not winning our last dining competition two years ago. Whenever it gets mentioned, she utters through her teeth how Saphirra deserved it. But there’s no mistaking the bitterness in her voice.

She may not have won, but she really did host an excellent dinner party and her efforts were outstanding. Her theme was Halloween – even though it was still September – and she pulled out all the stops. Here’s where she excelled on the night:

• She sent out custom made Halloween invitations which displayed the menu for the night.
• We began the evening outdoors on the veranda where we enjoyed drinks and canapes. The garden is magnificent and Mohotma had it sprinkled with tealights nestled in little glass jars.
• Her food was outstanding. Made with fresh and mostly homegrown ingredients. Eyeballs and fingers floated gruesomely in the soup – because of the Halloween theme. Her blancmange was a pink and wobbly brain!
• Entertainment for the evening was a fun Halloween quiz. I won that!! 😊 Ghoulish hits such as Bat Outta Hell, Monster Mash and Thriller had us dancing the night away! Oh… t’was a fantastic dinner party indeed! My party night was very boring in comparison.

It was unfortunate that she lost points on very simple things like this:

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