Preparing the Feast

Yesterday (Halloween) was Gloria's birthday, so it was time for a birthday celebration.  We usually stay home to answer the door for trick or treaters so I get to have fun in the kitchen and pull out all the stops for a birthday dinner.  This year we also have her Mom living with us so it was a formal dinner for three.

Soup

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

Entree

Crown Rack of Lamb

Warm Mustard Sauce

Parsleyed Red Potatoes

Sauteed Vegetables Provencal

Dinner Rolls

Far Eastern Shore Autumn Swan

Dessert

Smith Island Coconut Cake 

Before I got busy in the kitchen, I needed to set the table. The presentation is important, and it gives us a chance to use the good china and crystal that we usually keep in the china cabinet behind glass doors.  We like to actually use it (once in awhile) to be able to enjoy eating off of it instead of just looking at it. When Mom saw the table set she asked "is someone coming over?" I said no, it's just the three of us. I guess she's not used to making a special meal just for the special people we live with.  But I figure, the people we choose to share our lives with are the ones most deserving of a special effort. 

Table for Three

Had to be sure we had all the flatware, china, and crystal that we would need in place.

Also had to be sure there was space for the serving dishes and the carving set was sharpened and serving utensils in place.  Can't overlook any details that would distract from the experience.

I set the table early in the afternoon to have time to get into the kitchen and still have dinner ready by 6:00. I wanted to eat a little early because we expected the trick or treaters to start coming by after about 6:30. In years past I've done dinner later, but it was interrupted repeatedly so I went for an earlier service where we could enjoy the dinner.

Before we started eating I told Mom what each of the different pieces of silverware were for so she knew which one to use for each course.  She's never eaten such a formal dinner before and I was hoping she would enjoy the experience since it was just family and she didn't have to go out to a fancy restaurant, but she could still have a fancy dinner.

I also went out and cut the last of the daisies that looked presentable for a formal dinner.

Most of the daisies have withered now that we've had a couple of cool nights, but there were enough left to decorate Gloria's dinner table.

After a couple more hours in the kitchen, it was time for dinner.

The lamb is ready, the soup is hot, and the wine is open.

I surrounded the lamb on one side with the potatoes and on the other with the vegetables. The potatoes were made with parsley fresh from our garden.

The vegetables were a mix of red and yellow peppers, mushrooms, zucchini, yellow squash, and onions sauteed in butter and olive oil.

We were lucky and there were no interruptions until after we finished eating dinner, dessert waited until later (we were all full.)

It was just the right size for three and coconut cake is one of Gloria's favorites. Tonight, Jacob and Amanda are coming over and we're having home made pizzas.  We'll keep the celebration going, but more casual tonight.

Mid-October Panorama and Garden Bloom Day

I was able to get ouside to take some pictures earlier this week, but haven't been able to write up a post yet.  I's mid October so I went out to get pictures for the panorama.  Since the most "popping" elements were the Montauk Dasies I was glad to be able to get some pictures in diffuse light.  I've been reading several books on photography lately and playing with my camera settings.  For these daisies a diffuse light is best because the strong white blossoms will not be washed out bu direct sunlight.  These daisies are all over the hill from end to end, and even out in the front yard under the weeping cherry tree.

The Montauk Daisies are the white blossoms that have taken over the hill. I got some pictures to have for the Garden Bloom Day over at May Dream Garden.

I've been waiting all summer for these to bloom. I couldn't remember what they were and all summer these bushes have been adding a nice deep green foliage, but I've been waiting to see them in bloom.

Now that I've seen them I've been able to identify them (thanks to help from a Facebook group called Plant Identification.) It's a great group for getting help identifying what a plant is - just join the group then post a picture of two of what you have and you'll get suggestions about what it is.  Several people made suggestions and I looked them up and agree that these are indeed Montauk Daisies.

I was able to print out the panorama pictures from this summer and Gloria and I were able to look at them side by side.  We noticed a couple of things. An interesting observation (by Gloria) was in the growth of the holly trees we have outside the fence in the holly grove. We had these planted there to grow into a natural barrier to block views into the yard from the street.  Here are the pictures from April and from October showing this summer's growth.

April 2014

October 2014

And here is a picture from when they were planted in April 2011,

April 2011

They've come a long way, and so has the yard and the gardener.

And just because I really like this picture, I'm going to post it one more time.  I sent this to the channel 9 meteorologist, Topper Shutt, and he used it on the air and gave it an "A+." Then he tweeted it out.

Montauk Daisies

It's getting near the end of the year for the garden and we've seen an outburst of flowers. They are Montauk Dasies and there are groupings of the on the left, the center, and the far right on the back hill.  They are the white flowering bushes in the panorama below.

A more detailed look at one grouping looks like this:

These are from the grouping on the far left in the panorama. The former owners must have really liked these because there are more than 10 bushes of these on the back hill.  When they show up, they show up in force.  They give a nice pop of white late in the season and they should be blooming until the first frost - hopefully not too soon.

I read that they also attract bees and butterflies - THEY DO.  The following pictures were taken within  30 minutes a couple of days ago.

It was late afternoon and the sun was going down, so I was able to get some shots where the wings were back-light (backlit?) had back-light. I have not researched this specific butterfly, but the split wings are interesting. It's not one big wing like a swallowtail or a monarch. The second and third pictures almost make it look like a jet fighter wing configuration.

I was also trying some different camera settings to try and darken the background to minimize distractions. I was happy with these shots and will continue practicing my photography skills. Particularly since we are getting to the end of the gardening seasons.