A Fun Afternoon

One of the continuing pleasures of blogging is actually meeting some of the people whose blogs we read and who read our blogs. On Thursday, Leesa (News From France) and her husband Alex came down from Paris for lunch.

Alex and Ken on the deck enjoying wine and nibbles.

I met Leesa and Alex back in February while they were on a trip to near-by Cheverny. Ken was in North Carolina and missed their visit. So we agreed that they would come back for lunch one day when the weather got better.

Apéritif fare: nuts, olives, and foie de morue (cod liver) on toast.

Well, Thursday was the appointed day, but the weather did not cooperate. We had thunderstorms all morning and our plan to sit out back and barbecue got scrapped. Still, the rain stopped and we were able to have our apéros out on the front deck.

Leesa took this photo of me and Ken.

Lunch started out with an entrée of sliced smoked salmon rolled and stuffed with céleri rémoulade and fresh herbs. After that we had oven-roasted chicken marinated in white wine and shallots (that was supposed to be grilled, but for the rain), and bow-tie pasta in a radish leaf pesto with chunks of local white asparagus. We followed it with a green salad and some local goat cheese.

Leesa and Alex as we begin our walk in the vineyard.

After lunch, we took a nice walk out in the vineyard. Leesa loves to take photos and post them on her blog -- I encourage you to look through the photos she took on Thursday here, here, and here. Leesa had a good time taking pictures of Callie!

Leesa, Ken, and Alex inspecting the vines.

One of the many highlights of the day was the lemon cheesecake that Leesa made for our dessert. She also brought some tasty strawberries that she sliced and marinated in honey to top the cake. It was divine!

Leesa's home made cheesecake. A real treat!

Ken took more photos of the food than I did, and he'll be posting them on his blog over the next few days. You can see the first installment here.