#TheCharcoalChallenge

We took part in MoneySupermarket's #The Charcoal Challenge and were given £50 to throw the ultimate summer barbecue on a budget!  

We organised a get together at my mum and dad's house because they have an ace barbecue so we could spend time with our lovely family as they don't live close by.

On our guest list was Poppet and Littles' Grandad, Nana, Aunty Anna, Uncle Mike, Aunty Jenny, Uncle Peter, (Great) Uncle Ian, (Great) Aunty Christina, and second cousin Adam. Along with Mama and Dada it made 10 adults and 3 little ones. A Great Grandad was also meant to be there but wasn't well enough to leave the carehome in the end and was missed.

This is how we spent our money in order to make it stretch:

• £20 on burgers and sausages from our local butchers, (12 steak & onion burgers and 18 pork sausages).
• £5 on two family size bottles of Coca-Cola and one of Fanta, and two bags of lemons to make lemonade.
• £3 on paper plates, cups and napkins
• £19 on rolls, tomatoes, peppers, new potatoes, corn on the cobs, onions, mushrooms, a lettuce, a mutipack of crisps, cheesy nibbles, chilli couscous, halloumi, bananas and chocolate buttons and marshmallows.
• £3 on a 'Princess' ball (this was Poppet's choice!)

I made a big jugful of lemonade with Poppet's help, we are refining our recipe now and it tastes pretty good, roughly following the recipe at the bottom of this page. On this occasion we made it sourer than usual especially for Grandad, but left out a bowlful of sugar for those that wanted it sweeter. Aunty Anna bravely faced her fear of using knives despite her recent trip to A&E after a run-in with a quiche, and was my chief vegetable-chopper. Grandad displayed his barbecue skills that have been perfected over the last 30 or so years, even though he did forget the cardinal rule of always having a water bottle on hand. But he is 53 now so memory lapses are to be expected (only joking dad, there was some impressive barbecuing going on).

Most of the barbecue was spent 'ahhing' at the cuteness that was Poppet and Adam. Born only 6 months apart but living quite far away from one another they only get to meet up every few months. But when they do they are so sweet together, hopefully this is the foundation of a lovely friendship! They chat away to each other but no one else really knows what they are saying. Poppet really likes to stare at him and gently 'boss' him around.

Our menu included burgers and sausages in rolls with caramelised onions, barbecued vegetable and halloumi kebabs, chilli couscous, salad, new potatoes and corn on the cob. The sausages and vegetables were marinated in a homemade BBQ sauce that I got from More Than Toast. For pudding we had barbecued marshmallows and barbecued bananas with chocolate buttons. Below are some scenes of food enjoyment:

Aunty Anna also brought along a pear and cardamom cake that she made especially for the occasion and it was delicious:

The food went down well apart from Grandad still doesn't "see the point of couscous" and Uncle Mike forgot the kebab sticks but the veg and halloumi still tasted good so he was forgiven!

We attempted to involve the little ones in the stuffing-of-the-bananas-with-chocolate-buttons before they were wrapped in tinfoil and put on the barbecue, but most of the buttons did not make it as far as the bananas.

Little slept for most of the barbecue but made an appearance toward the end and got some Nana cuddles. She looked most displeased that we hadn't saved her a burger.

Poppet: 2yrs 6mos

Little: 9mos