Foodie Friday -- May 16th

Welcome to Foodie Friday.

It's Advil Season. 

A time for sore muscles, blisters, and sunburn--the best time of year if you are a gardener.

 I've spent the last few weeks cleaning the flower beds, checking to see what survived the severe winter and what needs to be replaced. 

The potted plants are starting to take off.

And the irises are in bloom.

A dear friend sent me some rhizomes last fall, and I was so worried that the Polar Blast

had hurt them. But the mighty iris prevailed.

This flower bed has sunny and shady areas.

Bandwidth planted 18 mandevillas today.

He is helping me mulch tomorrow. 

The bald hilltop is "Pretty in Pink" this year.

We've also planted a large potager, but I'll save that for later.

Meanwhile . . . 

Are you familiar with the MYSTERY INGREDIENT CLUB?

Here's how it works: A secret ingredient is assigned to members, and they incorporate it into a recipe (sweet or savory). 

The next club meeting will be held Monday, June 2, 2014. 

** Participating members can host the party. This means that you don't have to follow any rules or do any "hosty" things. You'll be mailed the Inlinkz thumbnail code prior to the event, which you can add to your post. This is totally optional.

**You can add your link at any participating blog. Your thumbnail/link will be seen on all MIC clubbers' blogs

** Other than using the secret ingredient in a recipe, there are no rules. 

** If you'd like to play with us, just leave a comment (or email me at designsbygollum@gmail.com and type MYSTERY CLUB in the subject header. 

** The secret ingredient will be unveiled via email.

** If you'd like to host the party on your blog, you'll be mailed the Inlinkz thumbnail code prior to the event.

**This isn't a weekly meme. The MIC meetings happen mysteriously!

Come on and join us. We'll have a great time!

Are you contributing a recipe to this week's Foodie Friday?

 If so, locate the blue Inlinkz icon in the lower, left-hand portion of this post. Click on the icon and follow the directions. After you complete the process, you will see a red "x" beside your name. This allows you to delete your link if you made an error; the red "x" is visible to you only.

You can read a complete guide to this linky party HERE.


It's pretty simple: there are NO RULES.


You don't need to "like" our Facebook page or be a follower of this blog to participate. Nor do you need to include a backlink or Foodie Friday button in your post. Add as many recipes as you wish, old or new.

If you'd like to share your food photos--or photos of other FF participants on Pinterest, join the Pinterest foodie board, Consuming Passions. Leave a message on the most recent "pin" if you'd like your name added to the list.

Every Friday, we are joined at this big, virtual table--thank you for stopping by today. I'm grateful to all of you who spend your days cooking. I'm grateful to old and new friends who contribute recipes every week. I'm grateful to friends who leave a comment. I'm grateful for the silent folks, because you are brought here by your love of all things culinary.

We are food people. And that's a marvelous thing.

Add Your Recipe:

Have a great weekend!

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The Purple Season: A Spring Tablescape

In the spring a livelier iris changes on the burnished dove;
In the spring a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.                  

             -- Lord Alfred Tennyson (1809–1892), Locksley Hall. Line 19.

 My mother's favorite color is purple.

As a twenty-something bride, she selected violet-sprigged china. Now, at eighty-four, she wears purple sweaters, shoes, and jewelry--even her reading glasses are pale purple.

I'll bet you can guess her most-loved flower.

She was thrilled when we drove up to Rattlebridge and were greeted by the Tennessee state flower,

the purple iris. I've always stayed indoors to write and cook; but I've inherited a garden, a real garden,
and I've got a lot to learn. In the past, we've had lawns and shrubs, but never a garden.
I'm looking forward to digging in the dirt and planting purple flowers and dreaming purple dreams.

My mother offered this advice:
The Gardener's Rule of thumb. "Weed'em and Reap.”

I was in a purple frame of mind when I set the table for lunch this weekend.

“To have complete satisfaction from flowers you must have time to spend with them. There must be rapport. I talk to them and they talk to me.”

            -- The Late Princess Grace of Monaco

Me, I talk to dishes. Yep, I do.

That's why I'm thrilled to be dishing at Cuisine Kathleen's every Wednesday night for her new linky party, "Let's Dish!"

I have long dialogues with napkins and napkin rings.

I talk, and they listen.

Dishes are very, very good listeners.

If you break one, they're, like, "Oopsy-daisy, get the glue pot, girlie!"

I have a feeling that flowers are the same way--quiet and kind and forgiving.

I do not talk to food, but I mutter to myself when I cook. For this spring lunch, I made a tomato-cucumber salad with a garlic vinaigrette.

The printable recipe can be found HERE.

The dishes have itty purple and green flowers.

They're part of Pfaltzgraff's Circle of Kindness--the Dunwalsh collection.
It's based on the book Circle of Kindness,

written by Jana Kolpen and Mary Tiegreen.

After the table was set, we enjoyed the afternoon--birds chirped and the ewes called to their lambs.

I tried to capture the sounds with my iPhone camera. 
It's real faint--you might need to turn up the volume to hear the sheep.

 “It is only when you start to garden--probably after fifty--
that you realize something important happens every day.”
                                              -- Geoffrey B. Charlesworth

“I believe that gardens themselves are very healing.

To be surrounded by the exquisite beauty of nature is to experience a healing of the soul.”

                          -- Author unknown

I'm delighted to participate in Let's Dish at Cuisine Kathleen

and Tablescape Thursday at Between Naps on the Porch.

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