Lunch…Garden Style!

Lunch is severed…Garden Style!

I have been baking and cooking for as long as I can recall, cooking through the seasons and enjoying fresh produce with every meal! Planning gatherings is often times just an excuse for me to be creative, invent new recipes and bake my favorite desserts! This menu is no exception…all of the recipes are garden themed to go along with The Garden Luncheon. In my previous post I shared the garden party table, a wonderful collaboration with my favorite brand…MacKenzie-Childs. It has been such a delight planning this event and I am now thrilled to share some more details from the afternoon in the garden.

I set the table in the front courtyard, it’s shaded in the afternoon…a perfect spot to linger over a long lunch. This area isn’t very large so I decided to keep it simple when setting up the serving area. I found an old cabinet door at “Habitat For Humanity” for $2.00, a quick coat of lavender paint turned it into the perfect serving tray along side the vegetable garden. So simple and easy!

Lunch was healthy and easy to prepare, I truly adore creating recipes that are simple to make but complex in flavor…the best of both.

The entree salad is one of my most requested recipes. One bite of this fusion of summer flavors and you will understand why!

I loved serving it in this gorgeous large MacKenzie-Childs “Everything Bowl”… what a perfect name for the bowl, this salad recipe has a fun amount of everything in it! “Summer Salad with fresh Peach Vinaigrette”. The recipe can be found under “recipes”.

 

Fresh arugula has a wonderful peppery flavor that compliments the fresh peach vinaigrette! When I make this salad I add all of the heavy ingredients to the bowl first, top with the arugula then serve the dressing at the table. This way the greens stay fluffy…I simply toss right before serving. An added sprinkle of organic flower blossoms is the perfect finishing touch for this salad.

To compliment this salad I added a farm fresh recipe that is perfect for this time of the year, apricot season! This stone fruit is my all time favorite. My grandparents were farmers in Northern California, Cupertino. They grew all kinds of stone fruit, and also grew sugar beets. I have such a strong emotional connection to the flavors and fragrances of summer fruit. I recall my grandma making her apricot jam right after my brother and I helped pick the fruit from the orchard…the amazing sweet smell filling her tiny kitchen was magical. Waiting for it to cool enough to taste was the hardest part! With apricots and summertime on my mind I decided to serve “Grilled Apricots with Point Reyes Blue Cheese and a Black Cherry Balsamic drizzle”

 

Leaves of fresh Butter Lettuce from our tiny garden were perfect for the grilled apricot halves!

I used a treasured MacKenzie-Childs platter for this recipe, mom gave this to me years ago. I miss her dearly but using gifts that she gave to me over the years sure makes me smile! When ever the MacKenzie-Childs catalogue would appear in her mail box she would call me and asked me what I “loved”. Special memories….

Our Garden donkey kept watch during the lunch…

A pile of summer berries over a layer of goat cheese, lemon zest and a drizzle of lemon olive oil is always a refreshing dish to serve. I loved using this Courtly Check pie plate for this recipe, it has the perfect depth for the goat cheese and a lovely pile of berries!

Our lemon tree in the courtyard is dripping with it’s juicy fruit…I used several in these garden recipes!

 

Simple parchment paper, 1/2 yard of gingham check ribbon, a snip of rosemary and a fresh bloom for the baguettes…tucked into a darling MacKenzie-Childs linen napkin…

With this garden menu I though it would be nice to serve “mini loaves” of wonderful fresh from the oven baguettes. They are perfect for tearing off  a piece and topping it with the berries, goat cheese with lemon zest and lemon olive oil…so delicious! This is almost a meal on it’s own, perfect for a warm summer evening!

Even the Bees in the garden approved of the menu…

The lunch was delicious, we lingered and laughed and couldn’t wait for dessert even though we were all stuffed!

I hope this post isn’t too long but I just have so much to share about this special day!

On that note…I am thrilled to share the whimsical dessert Garden Bench…

Right around the corner from our front courtyard sits our garden bench…this was the perfect spot to set up the desserts…

Chocolate Hazelnut Cupcakes with coconut buttercream frosting, Merengue lollipops, passion fruit pound cake with lemon zest buttercream frosting and my favorite fresh ginger cookies…ta da!

For the dessert display I had my husband make me three wooden square bases out of pine. I painted them with a with semi-gloss white paint. Then the fun part…I used strips of MacKenzie-Childs wallpaper for the sides of the “dessert boxes”. I used the Courtly Check and Courtly Stripe wallpaper, I just adore these fun patterns! The boxes are not connected to each other so they are easy to move around and stack inside of each other for easy storage…but I probably won’t be storing them, they are too much fun!

Piling the desserts on the boxes was such a joy…seeing the checks, stripes, blooms and yummy bites all together was such a joyful site. Knowing that I baked these for dear girlfriends made it all even more special…

I adore these Courtly Check cup cake liners, aren’t they fun? They are trimmed with such a pretty shade of light peony pink…

Using fresh snips of blooms on the desserts adds a fun touch of whimsy…

This passion fruit pound cake is a family favorite…I am so happy to now share it with you!

I have been baking these fresh ginger cookies for over 20 years. I usually bake a double batch and keep a few dozen in the freezer. Our kids know I always have these waiting for them when the are home, now our grandson knows exactly where to find them in the freezer…a true family favorite recipe!

These merengue lollipops are a bit fragile so these little Courtly Check herb pots filled with Jordan Almonds are a perfect way to display them…

All served with the darling Flower Market plates and napkins…the perfect touch for a garden party!

A joyful afternoon in the garden shared with dear friends!

Full and exhausted from laughter and fun…and one more treasure to share with you. I made some special “thank you for joining me” gifts…I will share these in my next post!

Many heartfelt thanks to MacKenzie-Childs for collaborating with me and for always inspiring me with their beautiful designs. Planning this garden party has been such a joy, I am truly grateful for this opportunity!

You will find even more gorgeous MacKenzie-Childs inspiration HERE !

Thanks for stopping by, I have loved sharing this with you. Please feel free to ask questions or leave a comment, I love hearing from you…

XO…Janice