beautiful sunday

This is not a post for a recipe. So if you are expecting one, I do not mind if you stop reading now. But I would be delighted if you stay and read a while. Who knows you might get some idea out of this. Hopefully.

I just want to share our menu (yes a menu!) for our Sunday lunch.

We had our good friends,the dynamic duo of J & K, over for lunch today. J who is such a computer geek (and I say that affectionately) is coming over to help us sort out our computers i.e., install programs on the new laptop and reformat an old one. My husband reckons that since he is coming to help us out the least we could do is serve something special for lunch. So he asked around and finally came up with the idea of having a Mediterranean bbq. A vegetarian Mediterranean bbq. Because it would be nice to have a barbeque on a warm, sunny day. Except that it rained. But anyways...

For entree we had ciabbata with butter, baked tomatoes with extra virgin olive oil and fresh oregano and fried haloumi drizzled with sweet chili and lime sauce. It was yummy, the haloumi most especially. We had champagne to start too.

For the main dish we had fried polenta with tomato salsa, grilled eggplant with fresh thyme and olive oil, grilled capsicum with basil and olive oil and mixed lettuce salad with feta. We were supposed to put avocado in the salad but the avocado we got was not very good so we had to chuck that idea out.

The salad is just your basic salad with balsamic vinegar dressing and a splash of this dressing we bought at the Willunga markets once called Seduction. Yes, we bought that dressing because of the name.

The polenta turned out to be really good. And I have to say both my husband and I have not cooked it before. Did not know it is such physical activity. All the stirring you have to do! I must admit the husband did most of it. Well, actually most of the cooking today. The tomato salsa is my husband's own recipe because he is such a smart cookie.

I just love the colours on this plate. For this we had 3 kinds of wines, we had a 2006 Semillon Sauvignon Blanc, a 2006 Shiraz from Coonawarra and a 2006 Cabernet Shiraz from Clare Valley. Coonawarra and Clare Valley, by the way, are two of the wine regions here in South Australia.

For dessert we had biscotti, turkish delight and cappucino and Italian espresso. And a bit of dessert wine, a Botrytis Semillon.

I have to mention too that all the fresh herbs used are all from little kitchen garden. I just love our herb garden!

We were so full that we had to burn the calories by walking around our suburb and checking out our neighbours' houses. Some of our neigbours houses are so fancy!

We were supposed to have some crackers with babaganoush and hummus and/or double brie cheese but we did not get around to doing it.

I must also say that although it seemed that we drank a lot of wine, we did not get drunk because our lunch which started at a around half past one in the afternoon ended at about half past 5 so the alcohol was spread out over a few hours. Our bodies had time to metabolize the alcohol. Ooopps, do I sound defensive? Sorry did not mean to.

All in all it was a great Sunday. Spending time with good friends with good food, good wine and great conversations, is one of the best way to spend a lazy, rainy Sunday. I am truly blessed to have such good friends and a good husband who can cook.

Hope you had a great weekend too!

Here's our menu again:

Mediterranean Lunch

Entree

Ciabatta with butter

Baked tomatoes with olive oil and oregano

Grilled haloumi drizzled with olive oil and lime

Taltarni Champagne Vintage 2008

Main course

Fried polenta with tomato salsa

BBQ (grilled) eggplant with thyme and olive oil

BBQ (grilled) capsicum with basil with olive oil

Salad – salad mix with feta cheese

Wine: Vasse Felix Semillon Sauvignon Blanc 2006

Coonawarra Shiraz 2006

Clare Cabernet Grenache 2006

Dessert

Biscotti

Turkish delight

Cappucino/Italian espresso

Wine: Woodstock Botrytis Semillon 2006

After

Cheese –double brie

Dips – babaganoush and hommus

Crackers