Sunday lunch

Lunch prep

Trace came for lunch on Sunday. It's always great to see her, and because I know she appreciates our connection with nature in our garden and in our kitchen, I enjoyed putting together a simple al fresco meal. Food tastes so much better enjoyed outdoors, and we had the added entertainment of watching the finches flutter in the fountain and the butterflies flit around the flowers.

From the garden I picked tall stems of flowering arugula, nasturtiums, watercress, lemon and mint. Our favorite organic farmers supplied zucchini, heirloom tomatoes, parsley, dill and barley.

It was a simple meal. Appetizers were keffir cheese with herbs and flowers, rye crisp and crudités. The main course was a chilled salad of barley and chickpeas with fresh herbs. An heirloom tomato salad and some sautéed zucchini rounded out the meal.

Dessert was an array of peaches, ice cream and brownies. I had brownies in the freezer — leftovers from a batch I made a few weeks ago. I churned some strawberry ice cream while we ate breakfast, and we had scoops of it and of the mango ice cream with a swirl of our homegrown blackberries that I made last week. (I'm making a lot of ice cream these days. Not sure why, but so far no complaints.)

It was a light meal that tempted the appetite but didn't leave us feeling sleepy and overfed. After Tracie left I headed out to do some digging.

There's no place better than a garden in summer.