Sim B

Each month my group of gorgeous girlfriends gather together for an evening of tangled conversation, much laughter and wonderful friendship.

There are 11 of us in our “100 Club” and each month one of us will take turns in hosting the others at her house for a meal. I volunteered to take January.  The meal is actually completely secondary to spending time with each other … so I could have served up some frozen pizza and they would have forgiven me!

I don’t know why but I’ve been struggling to really get back into the routine … maybe it’s because Monkey Girl is still on holiday. (Hallelulia … it’s back to school next week!)

So I decided to rustle up something refreshing, summery and tasty. Luckily I could call on my “sous-chefs” (aka mom and dad) to help with some chopping and peeling and prepping, so I managed to whip everything up after work without too much drama. (At one point I realised that I’d forgotten to buy the pears …. so momsie pie shot off down to the shops while dad and I continued with the peeling and chopping and prepping!)

Anyway, last night was wonderfully warm and dry … so I set the table outside so we could enjoy the summer evening.

I served 3 different salads with some nice breads. I’m not giving you any quantities – because I just wing it and I think you can adjust everything to your personal preferences.

(Ps. I was so busy hosting and preparing that I snapped up these photo’s while we were serving up outside – so they don’t do these salads any justice!)

Trio of melon with feta and mint.

You could use any combination of melons – I used some watermelon, spanspek and honeydew melon (at least I think that is the variety names)

Feta

Mint.

Yup – it’s that easy! Toss together, season with some salt, pepper and drizzle with olive oil.

Gorgonzola and Pear salad

Use a combination of watercress, rocket, baby spinach leaves  – basically some nice dark green peppery flavours.

Scatter over slices of pear. Fresh if they are in season, otherwise tinned pears are perfectly fine.

Toss in a few gooseberries.

Crumble in the gorgonzola. (You could use blue cheese if you want.)

Sprinkle over with toasted pecan nuts.

Smoked Chicken and Avo salad

Use any lettuce – I like butter lettuce but I usually just buy the mixed pack of “Italian salad” from Woolies.

Slice smoked chicken breasts into strips and scatter over.

Dice up avo and add.

Scatter some baby rosa or cherry tomatoes.

Sprinkle over some chopped spring onions.

Crumble over croutons. (I didn’t have the time or energy to make my own and happily used the store bought variety!)

I’m not a big salad dressing fan so I just popped some salt, pepper, balsamic vinegar and olive oil onto the table and let the girls dress the salads to their own tastes.

For dessert I’d seen a wonderful idea in the Jan Taste mag … I used my moms beautiful cut crystal bowl and piled it high with a combination of luscious fresh strawberries and mini Italian Kisses!

Needless to say – that it’s the friends around the table that make the meal so special. And I’m so blessed to have such lovely people sitting at my table!

Have a wonderful weekend …

x Sim x