Valentine Luncheon 2011, part III: Lunch is served.

Dining room table viewed from my seat


Gathering my guests together before lunch, I returned thanks for the wonderful friends the Lord has blessed me with and asked God to bless our food and our time together. I also thanked my friends for their wonderful support - expressed in myriad ways - during Vivian's illness last summer


My sweet friend Page raised a toast. She recounted recently helping her parents move and declared that when she was their age, she hoped she'd still be coming to my Valentine luncheon!


My menu this year (recipes coming): Mandarin Shrimp Pasta, Tomato Soup with Basil and Vermouth, Heart-shaped yeast rolls


Dining room guests


Some friends in the living room


Friends in the breakfast room


Chocolate Budini with coffee ice cream and caramel sauce. This might have received the most raves of any dessert I've ever served! It was fabulous. The recipe came from Compliments Of by the Women's Exchange of Memphis, a cookbook given to me by my dear blog friend Jan from Bessie Mary


This fun group stayed after everyone else left and sat and unwound with me in the living room


My least favorite part of the party: saying good-bye to my friends


Meanwhile, Miss Linda, DJ and Matt worked hard behind the scenes so that I could enjoy my own party


Clean dishes ready to return to the cabinet


A mix of my silverware (Gorham Fairfax) and my grandmother's (Stieff Corsage)


Dessert plates


And lest I give the impression that everything is perfectly lovely at my house for my Valentine luncheon, this is the attractive threshold that greeted my guests. There was a little bit of ice on my steps from some bad weather earlier in the week. The window washer who came the morning of my party offered to "de-ice" the steps for me with a pot of hot water. Well, the temperature was below freezing, so the hot water promptly froze and created a treacherous sheet of ice on both my steps and my walkway! Hence, old towels to the rescue {sigh}

Coming next... recipes