Movable feast

I picked a bouquet from the garden.

The groceries are being unpacked, let's cook.

We had lamb, steak and fish, all grilled on the BBQ,mmmm. I have a BBQ rub that I use all the time, it is very simple, salt, pepper, a little soya sauce and lots of cumin. The cumin makes all the difference, do not skimp on it. Marinate overnight.

The making of the Coulis de Framboise or raspberry sauce. It is simply raspberries, with some sugar, processed in a cuisinart and then strained to remove the seeds. It can be used as a sauce for anything, ice cream or Panna cotta (see previous blog for recipe). I love the color of the raspberries.

Lemons being squeezed for the gel al limone.

Gel al limone, it's just lemon jelly, a Sicilian dessert that blogger, Sicilyscene loves, she writes about it constantly that I decided to find out for myself. Nothing becomes more Sicilian than to sprinkle it all over with chopped pistachios.

The beginnings of the Blanc-manger, a French dessert, it's just ground almonds, soaked in milk, strained and add gelatin and whipped cream to it to make a mold, serve it with the coulis de framboise.

et voila, Blanc-manger et Coulis de Framboise!

Peaches and blueberries for the buckle.

Andiamo, let's eat!

The dessert buffet.

It was worth all the effort. You should try this at home. We had a great time. I had a great time doing the cooking. I'm looking forward to the next celebration.

I love to see big feasts being portrayed in movies, especially those shot in foreign locales and about foreign celebrations. Restaurant scenes are not that exciting but family feasts are a real turn on. Always when I read of expats accounts of life abroad, I love the descriptions of the food in their feastings- roast lamb, rabbit stew, all kinds of pizzas, all kinds of pastas, sausages, roast pork, steaks, the lists goes on and on. Just looking and reading about food is always so interesting.

I grew up in a large family and meal times was a boisterous affair, one has to be prompt or there won't be any left. Being prompt was no problem because we were always hungry and can't wait till meal times. Though there wasn't much on the table, we were never hungry and were always grateful.

Now that we're grown and all of us are much more affluent, meal times and feast times are still important. There's definitely more food on the table.

So this July 4th, I decided, I'm going to match my European rivals, have as much food on the table. It was an enjoyable assignment that I gave myself. I'd do it again.