the porch garden of solace

a quick note here before i leave town again!  the porch garden.  a place of true solace regardless of the streetnoise down below or the crazy people yelling profanities at 10pm from the half-way house across the street or the really bad music coming from some young punk's car in the church parking lot.  yes when you sit among the flowers you find solace among the robins, the finches, the hummingbird, the butterflies and of course the squirrels.

so enjoy this years selection of beauty before their become a jungle of independent plants that care no longer for form or shape and just want to expand in every direction they can!  be well - marlo.

a yummy dinner

another pleasure of mine is cooking and entertaining for our friends.  the only friends we have are ones who love food as much as we do!  yes those are the standards for us and so far in this life, we have a lovely bunch of them! 

so a snapshot of what was served for a recent casual dinner on the porch of flowers (next post).  it was a small group but i tend to cook as if 20 people will always show up.  i love leftovers especially during summer when it's too hot to cook every night.  

i use local as much as possible and almost all organic in everything i make.  that's very important to me as an environmentalist and for holistic living.  the farmers market is overflowing with so much beautiful vegetables and fruits and many other yummies that it's hard to not buy everything!  

when you're ready for a dinner party, give me a call and i can help you out!  enjoy:) marlo

the dinner offering laid out

peach & strawberry slab pie with homemade carmelized peach vanilla ice-cream 

fruit salad in season spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg,  honey & lemon citrus syrup

figs with gorganzola cheese wrapped with bacon

roasted carrots with orange olive oil, roasted beets & fennel with lemon and salt-n-pepper

roasted chicked with sundried tomatoes, flat leaf parsley, carmelized onions, goat cheese, pinenuts  topped off with lemon olive oil

lettuce from henry's wall of lettuce with cucumbers, tomatoes, avocados, red bell peppers & chives with a maple syrup mustard balsamic vinaigrette

the setting is complete with these so beautiful peonies which i absolutely LOVE!!!  they are one of my favorite flowers