Holy Week Lunch

It's Holy Week

Easter will be celebrated Sunday . . . 

And although it's not a special lunch

(for it was a regular Lunch Bunch luncheon)

but it was a special lunch

The table is set in the dining room

(and a new addition is the shades on the scones -- to help defuse the light)

Since it is almost Easter . . . bunnies made their appearance on the dining room table

"chocolate" ones bought long ago on sale after Easter

A vase of garden forsythia lends a spring touch to the table

And candles in the silver candlesticks

All set and ready for company --

food aromas wafting through the house

lamps and sconces lit

A fire in the fireplace (for it's a cold and rainy day)

A candle lending it's fragrance

A Quaker Lace cloth

Jim's grandmother's cutlery

Damask napkins in silver rings

The Aynsley Pembroke

(the 1900 era plates)

The menu:

A salad of romaine, sliced strawberries, red onion and pecans

with Ms. Gilmore's raspberry cream dressing

(Ms. Gilmore's is a tea room in Springfield -- their raspberry cream dressing is AMAZING)

JoAnn's Chicken With Artichokes

(an easy but yet elegant recipe)

Served with roasted asparagus and a crescent roll

Dessert anyone?

In the cookbook, it was called "Lemon Delight" but I renamed it

"Lemonade Pie"

It's tart, cool, tangy and sweet

And easy!

Decorated with lemon zest and a slice of lemon!

Served with coffee

The recipes all came from:

This cookbook

Not bought in 1976

(for I didn't live in Fort Scott then)

but had we lived here, I certainly would have bought the cookbook!

The irony?

I know so many of the contributors to this cookbook

I didn't know they were involved in Jaycees -- it's something they have never talked about

And husband Jim and I were also involved with Jaycees at the same time

Only in Missouri -- Nevada to be exact

Our women's auxiliary were not called "Jaynes" but rather simply "Wives"

We never published a cookbook

But a lot of my recipes in my own cookbook

are from those Jaycee days.

We worked hard, we partied hard

We ate a lot

And the wives were great cooks!