Life's Patina at Willowbrook Farm: Out Comes the "Good" China

My daughter just had her three best friends in from college to stay with us for two nights. I have to be honest with you in that it was wonderful to have more females in the house! With five males roaming the halls during any given day it was a welcome respite to have real live people ohhh and ahhh over what I made for dinner and how pretty everything looked. "What did you make to get ohh's and ahh's you ask?" Just a little menu that looks like our usual fare:

Tomato Gazpacho soup with crab, avocado and lime. (I will be posting this recipe in a later blog because it is my favorite summer go-to recipe!)

followed by

Grilled Salmon with a dill butter

accompanied by

Quiona with roasted eggplant, tomato and Feta cheese

And

Salad of field greens, hearts of palm, dried cranberries, red onion, pistachios and feta

NOT!

Again, those five males pop up along with their schedules and dinner is usually a late affair with a much simpler menu based on the go to, can get it ready in twenty minutes, and everyone will eat it (sort of) list of meals that have passed muster. I do try and wait until we are all together back home to eat (much to the chagrin of my hubby who was ready to eat at six) because that is the one time we can reconnect and talk about the day.

Dinner almost never happens on my good china. Even though I do believe in the adage...don't wait for a special occasion to bring it out...it is an economical decision. With 4 boys comes an inordinate amount of breakage AND they could care less what they are eating on, if they are eating on anything at all! As they grab food on a daily basis, I constantly hear myself say, "Please put it on a plate!"

So...with that back ground knowledge in place you can see why, I...

one who loves to plan a menu, cook, and set a beautiful table using the dishes she has collected over the years, was ecstatic with the news that this slew of girls in the house would motivate me to do so. (Unfortunately, much to my chagrin, I do not have any pictures of the dinner. By the time we got home from the aforementioned activities...luckily I had set the table earlier in the day and made the gazpacho...even the girls would have looked at me like I was crazy if I stopped to take stylish pictures of the food.)

I do not like to disappoint though so I did get up early in the am to set out breakfast AND take a few pictures (the hardest thing about doing a blog I think!)