I woke up Saturday morning, realised the date, and said to Jason ‘Let’s invite ourselves round to Mum’s house this evening and have a Midsummer feast!’
He replied ‘What’s a Midsummer feast?’. I told him it would be a lovely fresh, summery meal, eaten outside, with candles and cold wine and maybe some Pimms and lots of talking and laughing and celebrating of us being right in the middle of summer. Jason replied ‘So, it’s basically just dinner then? Like, we have dinner every night, right?’ ‘Whatever’, I said. ‘It’s happening, it’s going to be awesome, and we’re calling it a feast because that makes it much more fancy and fun than just regular old dinner’. ;)
So I called my Mum, she loved the idea (we do love a bit of celebrating for the sake of celebrating in this family!) and we had the whole evening planned and organised in 10 minutes flat! I was to bring the food, Mum was to provide the Pimms, and that was that!
^^ I spent the morning cleaning and doing a little Pilates, and then went to the shops and picked up all the ingredients we needed for our ‘feast’ plus some bunches of fresh flowers too. Beautiful Sweet Williams and peonies for me, plus another bunch of lovely peonies for Mum too. We’ve had fresh flowers in the house the last couple of weeks now, and whilst they are an indulgence they really do make me so happy. Peonies especially. This bunch are now almost completely open, and are brightening up our living room a treat. ^^
I had some leftover roasted chicken in the fridge at my house, so I brought it round to Mum’s and we had a go at making a warm chicken and green bean salad kinda thing I’d seen on an episode of Jamie Oliver’s latest show during the week. It’s just fresh, par-boiled fine green beans tossed in a garlicky honey-mustard vinaigrette and with shredded cooked chicken, served on a bed of lentils and topped with sliced hard boiled eggs. It was crazy good! So fresh and summery tasting, but filling too!
The meal wound up being a collaborative effort- Jason took charge of the potatoes, I did the bean salad, and Mum cooked salmon fillets glazed with raspberry balsamic. Oh, and I played Mother, and served everyone up. ^ Scuse fingers. ^
It was all demolished in about five seconds flat out in the garden, with glasses of Pimms for company. It’s the warm evenings that I love most about summer, and spending time in my Mum’s lovely garden is just my absolute favourite. The little patio (where we eat) is lower than the rest of the garden so it feels all cosy and intimate, and there are huge tall trees (one my Mum’s nicknamed Russell because it makes the most soothing rustling noise every time the wind catches it) down the far end of the garden that catch the last of the day’s light so beautifully.
^^ FEAST! ^^
^^ New summer dress from Boden! I wore it all weekend long, and am kind of in love. (It’s on sale now too!) ^^
Teddy was on best behaviour all evening, and was mighty proud of himself when he found a tennis ball in one of the flower beds. He got stung on the nose by a bee whilst retrieving it though, poor little man. How much more grown up does he look here, compared with last June?!
For dessert, we did iced berries with white chocolate sauce. It’s one of my favourite desserts, and one I’d not had in such a long time. Super simple too- just chuck frozen berries in a bowl, heat cream until it’s just almost at boiling point, remove from the heat and stir in an equal quantity of white chocolate, then heat gently again so it’s warm enough to soften the berries, and pour over! I kind of served up excessively large portions, and we learnt that this is definitely a dish served in modest quantities. I did manage to plough through my whole bowlful though, because I’m a trooper like that. If you’ve not tried it yet, promise me you will do just once this summer?
The rest of Midsummer’s Eve was spent watching the sunlight fade, drinking tea by candlelight, and dancing to BeyoncĂ© in the garden. Maybe my favourite Saturday we’ve had in a long time. Can this summer last for another six months, please?