Dinner Party Series: Summer Lunch

If a picture’s worth a thousand words, these photos say it all! An outdoor lunch to bid farewell to summer doesn’t need a lot of work. I hard-cooked the eggs (see the Index: How to Hard-Cook Eggs), plunged the beans into boiling water for a single minute before chilling and blotting them dry, left the baby carrots raw, and threw in a couple of sliced harvest tomatoes. 

I served this simple meal with hard, crumbly cheese, a few ripe olives, prosciutto, and my own garlic-infused Crostini (check the Index under Bread), from which I omitted the pesto, sun-dried tomatoes, and chèvre (soft goat cheese) in the original recipe.

Preparing this lunch for a small, fuss-free gathering was fun, but I like to set the mood as well as the table. Sometimes the mood is formal ...

As Ron and I prepare to dine ...

And sometimes, casual ...

... Our cook cleans up!

You’ll find “mood” a recurring theme in this occasional series indexed as Dinner Party. You’ll also find that entertaining doesn’t have to be a lot of work!

Contrasting colors, textures, and 
tastes tempt the senses

Garlic-infused Crostini is the perfect side dish!

A cereal bowl and the leftover trimmings from a summer
bouquet created this centrepiece for a second table

As the days grow shorter, the shadows grow longer. Hidden from
view, the bottom portion of this patio bench stores extra china 

Water trickling from a tiny fountain 
near the bench promotes a relaxed mood