Dear friends from Colorado, Gayle and Bruce, stopped by for lunch on Sunday. An out of the way stop on their journey home from a Saab convention in Albany, NY. I have never owned or even driven a Saab so I do not understand the appeal of the Swedish car, but Saab enthusiasts revere the cars and Bruce has restored more than one. It was a good reason for them to be in New York, and we were grateful they ventured down the Hudson Valley to Newburgh. They shared with us that when mentioning to other friends that they were going to Newburgh, the answer was – “I am sorry.” Not all parts of Newburgh are nice, still we think our little slice is delightful.
We planned a simple lunch. Gayle is an excellent cook. Between the fact that Gayle cooks so well and their next stop was dinner at the Moosewood restaurant in Ithaca, it would be impossible to think we would be successful. Never-the-less we gave it our best.
Lunch was served on the porch. The photos are a bit grey, because it was a cloudy day. We began with a tour of the yard. By the time we entered the woodland garden it had begun to rain. Our tour was cut short and we returned to the house to eat lunch.
We started lunch with a limoncello, coconut drink. Our first course was a watermelon, mint and feta salad. We have a plethora of mint growing in the yard, all from a single plant purchased two years ago. The leaves are amazingly aromatic. Just touching the leaves releases a wonderful minty scent. The salad was a nice, cool start to the meal.
Our main course also used ingredients from the garden. We roasted eggplants we had picked from the vegetable garden in the morning. We roasted these with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. The eggplant was combined with mozzarella cheese and spinach to make a sandwich. On the side, we picked some of the marble sized tomatoes from the garden and served them with kettle potato chips.
For dessert, Andrew made a Burmese dish, Snow Pudding. This is made with milk, cream, corn starch and sugar. It has a firm, but smooth texture. We topped it with a raspberry sauce and sprinkled it with flakes of coconut. It is a delicious cold treat for summer.
We served the dessert in antique GOA porcelain dishes. I recently bought these at Habitat ReStore. They are hand painted, from Limoges, France and probably made in the 1930’s. The porcelain is incredibly thin. It took a steady hand to paint the precise lines on each of the bowls and saucers. They languished at ReStore (I didn’t buy them the first week I saw them), with no one willing to buy them at $2.00, so it was clearly intended I should rescue them.
It was an enjoyable summer event, a chance to catch-up with old friends, sample some good food and relax in the country. We are looking forward to more entertaining in the coming weeks as we host neighbors from both Kew Gardens and Newburgh.
“We dare not trust our wit for making our house pleasant to our friend, and so we buy ice creams”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Beautiful from the first to the last. Your table linens with the potted citrus tree & shaped border are both elegant & happy. Each course sounds delicious and with your China is ‘eye candy’. Loved that your garden contributes so much to your inspired menu. I had watermelon gazpacho for lunch today. And the eggplant sandwich looked & sounded perfect. Snow pudding in French porcelain is a great combo of you two. Perfect summer meal. Your Denver guests were fortunate indeed!
Thank you Kathleen. I am always grateful you appreciate our efforts. Watermelon gazpacho sound delicious! Enjoy Sante Fe.
Your watermelon, mint and feta salad looks beautiful and sounds great. We have lots of watermelon here in Georgia, and it’s nice to see something new to do with it.
Thank you Christy! Georgia watermelons must be delicious. Eating them reminds me of being a small boy. My mother would give us a long slice. We would eat it without a spoon – the watermelon juice running down our arms. We were in heaven. It was a good summer, when we had watermelon.
Sounds like a lovely afternoon! A side note – my Denver car, since I am not there much, is my mother-in-law’s 2001 Saab (manual). Gets me around for groceries and plants!
Hi Shelie,
Good for you. It sounds like a practical car. My friend Bruce would approve. I never learned to drive a manual car. You are amazing. Hope you are enjoying summer.