The Queen hosted a reception at Sandringham House for members of the local community who gathered to mark the monarch's Platinum Jubilee.
Among the guests were members of the Sandringham branch of the Women's Institute, Sandringham Estate pensioners and representatives from two local charities West Norfolk Befriending and Little Discoverers.
The Queen also met former cookery school student Angela Wood who helped to perfect the famous dish coronation chicken served to guests after the Queen's 1953 Coronation ceremony.
The event was the largest in-person public engagement the Queen had attended since before her recent health scare.
The Queen, wearing an Angela Kelly wedgewood blue crepe with white brocade dress, beamed with delight during the event, as she held a wooden walking stick and carried her trademark black handbag.
She was chatty and appeared in her element as spoke with guests.
The Queen was described as being on "sparkling" form by Yvonne Browne, vice-president and chairman of the Sandringham WI after she joked and laughed with her guests at the Sandringham reception.
The 95-year-old head of state arrived at the event with a wooden walking stick she leaned on sagely as she leant forward to chat to the visitors who were seated around tables waiting for a tea to be served but stood up to chat to the Queen.
One of the first guests she met was Angela Wood who as a student was tasked by royal florist and cookery doyenne Constance Spry and cordon bleu chef Rosemary Hume to help perfect their dish of Coronation Chicken for the crowning of the Queen in 1953.
Mrs Wood made the Queen laugh when she told the monarch she spent "days and days altering it for Constance Spry and Rosemary Hume".
Commenting on how the recipe for coronation chicken has likely developed over the years the Queen told Angela Wood: "It's probably changed because in those days we did some things quite differently."
Shaun Mason, a junior sous chef, had created tiny bite size morsels of the coronation chicken, chicken with curry spices, apricot in a savoury tartlet, and he carried a tray of his creations into the ballroom and announced they were available to sample.
As the morsels were placed between the Queen and Mrs Wood to try, the room erupted with laughter when the Queen quipped "I'll go away", she turned to add: "You can tell me (what you think) when I come back."
The Queen's Platinum Jubilee will be celebrated across the country during an extended June Bank Holiday in honour of a monarch who has left an indelible mark on the life of the nation.
But February 6, the date of the Queen's accession to the throne, is a poignant period for the Queen, as it is the day her father King George VI died in 1952.
She is already the nation's longest reigning monarch, and the longest still-serving sovereign in the world.
During the reception the Queen also met representatives from West Norfolk Befriending a charity which aims to reduce the social isolation experienced by the elderly by matching them with trained volunteer befrienders who visit on a regular basis.
And she spoke to members of Little Discoverers which provides early education for pre-school children with movement difficulties and delayed development.
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