Preliminaries

We had a lovely lunch on the deck Tuesday with some friends. It was so nice to be able to sit on the deck and be comfortable; mostly sunny, no wind, warm(ish). We ended up having the whole meal outside. I actually remembered to take some photos of the apéro and starter courses, but then totally forgot the camera for the rest of the meal. Oh well, too much fun!

Finger food: deep-fried zucchini hushpuppies with a curry dipping sauce.

We started out with zucchini hushpuppies. They're a cornmeal batter with finely grated zucchini mixed in, then deep-fried to a golden brown and served with an Indian-style curry sauce. The original recipe uses chickpea flour and it's good, but this twist with cornmeal works well.

Summer salad of garden cucumber and tomato with sheep's feta and fresh basil, dressed with balsamic vinegar.

Our entrée (starter course) was made with produce from our vegetable garden: chopped cucumber and tomato with cubes of feta-style cheese, topped with a chiffonade of basil and a few drops of balsamic vinegar. Tasty! After that we had a bolognese lasagna followed by a salad of our garden green beans with shallot and tomato in a vinaigrette dressing. Our guests brought a fantastic blackberry and apple crumble topped with an English custard for dessert.