Easy Saturday Luncheon

Today we invited a lovely couple over for lunch; they were friends of my late mother, and are genuinely kind and gracious people.  I was too busy enjoying their company to take pictures before we ate--but here's the one glimpse I got with my phone.

 I did all of my cooking yesterday, leaving this morning for the fun task of table-setting. Annie and I picked the tulips together, and I was happy to use my jadeite--perfect luncheon plates--and my husband's grandmother's silverplated flatware.  

  The menu was perfect and simple to make ahead, which is what I needed. I was cooking for four people who eat anything, one vegan, and one gluten-free person.

The Menu: 

chicken salad on a bed of lettuce (for my husband: lettuce with pecans, raisins, et cetera)

platter of hummus with radishes, carrot, celery, red pepper and cucumber

fruit salad (strawberries, blackberries, apple)

crisp whole-grain crackers 

Dessert:

chocolate-almond cake for dessert topped with freshly-whipped local cream and a dollop of berries

hot tea!

Oh! The unsightly paper towel is covering fresh, still-warm cinnamon bread that our guests
brought to share.  Delicious!

After we ate we all sat around and drank tea and visited. W, the husband, did the portraits you can barely see in the background here, so we took him on an art-tour around our house and discussed the origin of the various pieces we have collected over the years.  I even pulled out an old watercolor that he had done in 1968, of his two daughters, and he'd forgotten about it.....that was a sweet moment.

After they left we spent the rest of the afternoon happily engaged in various productive pursuits: my husband mowed and did the weed-eating outside, the children played raucously, and I sewed a new tee-shirt for myself, then we had Thai food for supper, topping off a perfectly wonderful Saturday.