A BIRTHDAY WEEKEND!

PHOTOS: SOPHIA HOME

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Good morning!

I do hope you are all having a lovely weekend?

We have a birthday weekend here at home.....my husband's.  Having just stepped off a long haul flight yesterday morning after a long business trip to Canada, he arrived home in time for a special birthday lunch......shared with close friends, and lovingly cooked by daughter Georgie who came home from London for a couple of days to cook, as a surprise for her Daddy!  

A fun and relaxed day, with a delicious lunch around the dining room table for the eight of us, and then cheese and birthday cake enjoyed outside in the garden for the rest of the afternoon......

Accompanied by plenty of crisp refreshing 

Rose wine.....!

 Georgie prepared a wonderful selection of imaginative, colourful salads, using mainly vegetables from the kitchen garden.....along with salmon and a fabulous Vietnamese fillet of beef salad...a delicious recipe from Yotam Ottalenghi for which she marinaded the beef fillet for two days prior to our lunch.

Beetroot, new potato and avocado with lemon and creme fraiche......

Sweet potato with feta cheese, spring onions, mint and basil.....

French bean, asparagus, yellow courgette and hazelnuts......

Chocolate meringue with raspberries and chocolate creme patisserie.....doubled up as a delicious birthday cake!

Thank you to good friends for their wonderful, entertaining company......and thank you to Georgie for a gorgeous and memorable lunch.....the perfect birthday present for her very appreciative 'Daddy', who had such a lovely day, that he forgot all about his 'jet lag'!

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Have a wonderful rest of the weekend, and I look forward to sharing in the next day or so, the pictures I took at the beautiful Chelsea Physic Garden in London the other week.....along with a great 'Chelsea' area restaurant suggestion!

Sophia xx