Weekend Recap: New Toys (Part 1)

On Saturday four wonderful women threw me a bridal shower.  The theme was "Setting the Table."  The guests included family and friends of my mother's; I have a great family and I love my mom's girlfriends, so it was a really fun time.  In addition to some beautiful linens, dishes, and other hostessing items, I also got a stack of cards full of personal words of wisdom from each of the ladies.  It was such a great afternoon.

Well, I couldn't wait to play with my new toys, so I immediately put together an intimate afternoon luncheon for the next day.

(my aunt Terri carried that table cloth with her back from her trip to India earlier this year)

I served a simple lunch of lemon roasted chicken with rosemary potatoes, a green herby salad with pears and a champagne dijon vinaigrette, and a raw vegan spumone cake for dessert

I'm pretty proud of that chicken.  It was golden and crispy on the outside, and oh so moist on the inside.

Chicken is kind of my specialty.

And we had a gluten-free, egg-free, dairy-free guest so the whole meal addressed those concerns, including the spumone cake.

I adapted the recipe from the My New Roots raw cashew cake, and is a pretty successful vegan version of spumone ice cream.  The three layers are chocolate pecan, pistachio vanilla, and almond cherry.  The only change I think I'd make is adding more cherries to the top layer.  Even so, I really enjoyed it as is.