Sunday, July 4, 2010

Thanks for the Good Examples

It's been a wonderful weekend and not really over yet. Cooler weather - sit on the deck weather and we all know that's my reason for living! - nothing scheduled to do. Have done a ton of work in the garden - unfortunately it was mostly deadheading. This heat has not only caused things to bloom early, but has also caused shorter blooming cycles in so many of the summer perennials that I am well into fall deadheading already - and not liking it a bit! But it will mean that things are cleaned up earlier this year, or maybe that I will get finished this fall and not in the spring - wow! that's a great thought.

But what I really want to do is thank some of you for Friday night's dinner. Jeanne at Collage of Life had a lovely post on Thursday or Friday about summer table settings. She inspired me to actually "set" my table for a small dinner party that evening. Close friends came for an impromptu dinner [on the deck] so I spent a [very] little time and made it special. [Ok, here's the deal. I didn't think to take a photo before they came, and was embarrassed once they arrived, so no real photo. You will have to use a bit of imagination. I fail as a blogger!]

I pulled out a turquoise cloth and folded it so it would fit the wrought iron table and then made individual vases of flowers [from the garden] for each place. Not much interesting in bloom, but a posey here, a posey there and I liked the effect. Then a big candle for the table and voila', I had a table. *

Then Marie at 66 Square Feet stepped in and posted her recipe for Green Garlic Risotto and I was set. Add the family recipe for ribs, a fruit salad and we had a meal. I made my grandmother's recipe for "Berry Roll" using fresh blackberries from the CSA and we dined like kings.

The best part of all, tho, was the next morning Mitchell [seriously] said. "I really liked the table last night. It was like a party. We should do it more often." "We" in the previous sentence should be translated as "you". He even suggested looking for a tablecloth that fits correctly. That's one shopping trip I shall take soon.

So big thanks to Jeanne and Marie for the inspiration [and recipe]. You can teach an old dog some new tricks!

* Cheap, imitation dinner the next night. Reused the flowers with regular place mats. A little festive, tho, with beets and tomatoes [from our garden].

4 comments:

  1. What a lovely way to spend a holiday, gracious friends and beautiful food! Thanks for stopping by... please come back... you're always welcome...

    Twitter: SolarChief

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  2. There is nothing like dining (or lunching, or breakfasting) al fresco, and with stuff from the garden to eat and look at, it does not get any better.

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  3. I think Neal really loves it when I "set" the table...but who has time to do such things on a daily basis when there's laundry to be folded and cats under my feet. Not to mention, there's a pool to be visited. As soon as it cools off a bit, I think we will dine outside more. I vastly underestimated the summer in Georgia. But until then...how about sharing that recipe for ribs?? The only one I have is for the crockpot and while it is simply DELISH...it also requires quite a bit of planning. Not good for when you lose track of time at the pool....

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  4. 'Cheap imitation' my foot! It looks delicious and the setting looks beautiful. Flowers just seem to bring a certain beauty to a place setting. Your chicken looks perfect.

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