One of the most exciting aspects of owning a new home is being able to invite family and friends around to show off your new space.
While this isn’t yet possible, we don’t want new residents in Stewart Milne Homes to miss out on the special memories that hosting dinners can bring.
As part of our #newhomechallenge series which showcases the very best of new build homes, we’ve teamed up with Fee Lofthouse (@theloftyhouse) and asked her to create the perfect date night in her Denewood home.
Perfect for entertaining
Fee said: “The kitchen is at the heart of the home in our ‘Lofty’ residence and the thing that drew us to Stewart Milne was its open plan kitchen/dining rooms which are perfect for hosting dinners for friends and family.
“Since we moved into our home we’ve loved having nights in (especially with lockdown!). I’ve really got into the swing of cooking and baking since moving in. The open plan kitchen-diner with loads of storage space, integrated appliances and everything in the right place was one of the main reasons we opted for a new build home.
“As we haven’t been able to show it off much over the last 12-months, I was really excited to take part in the #newhomechallenge to dust off my entertaining skills and create a special night for me and Fraser (and Frankie, our cockapoo too).
What’s on the menu?
“When we can go out for food and visit restaurants, we love choosing sharing food that we can ‘pick’ at while chatting a sharing a glass of wine, so I wanted to create something similar.
“We’re lucky with the open plan design of the kitchen/dining space as whoever is cooking can still chat to those at the table, so making our charcuterie-style dinner was a lot of fun.
“First, I followed a BBC Good Food recipe for Olive Bread - this is a tried and tested recipe of ours! It’s a simple recipe but requires a lot of time in the kitchen prepping and proving the bread at different stages, which is great for date night because it’s something we both helped with.
“To accompany the bread, we bought a selection of meats and cheeses and some tiger king prawns from Aldi. As well as being tasty, I think they look great on the table - if you look through Pinterest there are lots of ways to fold and cut the meats and cheeses to make them look like they would be presented in a restaurant.
“For dessert we had a White Chocolate and Raspberry Cheesecake (a recipe from Janes Patisserie), which is a firm favourite in our home. It’s very easy to make, just 20 minutes of hands-on time and then pop it in the fridge until you’re ready to eat it.
“We paired all of the food with a bottle of Oriel Sauvignon Blanc from Tesco. Although red would usually go with the meat and cheese, because we had prawns and the dessert, we thought a crisp white would taste great - with it finally being Spring we wanted something refreshing.
Creating the perfect setting
“I think the food did most of the work in creating a really stylish setting, but to make it even more special, we added in some candles and decorations. I love the look of traditional candlesticks in an upcycled glass bottle or jar, these were from Planet Goods and Ware and priced at £19.95.
“I wanted to create a rustic theme to go with the style of the meal, so added in some dried eucalyptus from the Planet Goods and Ware order and some linen napkins detailed with jute twine from Dunelm.
“We brought out our special crockery which we bought when we first moved in from the Denby range at John Lewis. We love the speckled Studio Grey colour of the plates as it complements the theme and colour in the kitchen perfectly.
“Because it was a sharing meal, I served everything on marble boards we got from TK Maxx (£20).
“Its been the perfect evening in our Stewart Milne home and I just love the fact we can spend the whole evening together in this space, not just one person stuck in the kitchen doing all the cooking!”
All Stewart Milne Homes come with a complete kitchen as standard, which includes high specification appliances. These features, paired with its soft closing drawers, USB sockets and extra storage are what make it a home.
Fiona’s Denewood property is a four-bedroom detached home. The home comes with an attractive living room, kitchen/dining/family room and upstairs with four spacious bedrooms, family bathroom and two en-suites in the master and guest bedrooms.