Lies, Damned Lies, and Paella

Our gite guests wanted to celebrate a birthday. Much subterfuge was employed, involving flat-out lies about booked restaurants and blindfolded journeys for the celebrant. After the ‘mystery tour’ had begun, we set to in cooking and laying out the tables for her return to the ‘surprise’ party - at the place her journey had been started from (the gite). Mrs SoL and I did wonder whether she might be a tad disappointed by discovering it wasn’t the lobster feast in a beautiful seaside location that she had imagined. We didn’t need to worry. She was delighted to spend it with her family. My contribution was the paella, which seemed to go down well. Its a well-tried recipe from an Australian Seafood Cookbook that I use very regularly. It seems to come out fine every time, as long as I don’t get involved in the pre-meal drinking too early!  We never skimp on the mussels, even though the recipe calls for fewer (for presentational reasons). It was all eaten. Just the huge paella pan to wash now.