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A surprise lunch for Mum
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| A centrepiece of flowers, colourful place settings decorated with a few rose petals, a light and colourful menu. These are the right ideas for preparing a perfect surprise lunch for mum. With Dad's help, even little ones can try out being a chef for a day, making way for creativity and making simple but delicious dishes. Start the day before by preparing a few paper decorations for the table, and continue on the day of the party by buying fresh flowers and preparing the dishes on the menu. |
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The first thing to think of when organising a perfect surprise lunch for Mum is the table decoration. You can prepare attractive place cards in a variety of shapes and colours: just draw out the outline of flowers, crowns and hearts on sheets of coloured card then cut out with a pair of scissors. To make the table even more attractive, we suggest gluing rose petals onto the place cards. Even napkin holders can be created ad hoc with a coloured ribbon or a cardboard "ring".
No Mother's Day table is complete without a centrepiece of fresh flowers. And as May is the month of the rose, the choice will be pleasantly obliged. in fact it is enough just to get a few roses, a few pieces of fern and a vase with a piece of evergreen moistened with water inside along with a few other flowers. Arrange the roses in the vase, if necessary holding the stalks of the flowers together with a little wire. Even the table cloth and the dinner service have their own importance in creating a festive atmosphere - these should not necessarily be white, but also coloured to transform the lunch into a moment of play and celebration.
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A COLOURFUL AND LIGHT MENU |
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Particular attention should be dedicated to the dishes on the menu. Dishes that are easy to prepare but mouth-watering and colourful, and even decorated with flowers. From the antipasto to the dessert, the surprise menu for Mum should propose recipes that satisfy both palate and eye. You might start out with an original appetiser such as spaghetti baskets with vegetables. Cook the spaghetti in the traditional way, drain when they still have a little bite and dress with a little oil. Then line a colander with oiled and perforated baking parchment and place a forkful of spaghetti in it, pressing them down well. Immerge the colander in plenty of boiling oil and fry the spaghetti until crunchy. At this point, place the baskets on kitchen roll and leave to cool before filling with a mixture of cherry tomatoes, courgettes, olives and corn.
Even the first course dish can be colourful to render the meal cheerful and imaginative, but once again we recommend opting for simple and fast pasta dishes. For example, Canalini with capsicum peppers, tomatoes and prawns is ideal, or sautéed Farfalle with fresh tuna, olives and cherry tomatoes. For practical purposes, it is best to prepare the second course the day before. A many-coloured pan of eggs and vegetables is easy to make and bound to be a hit. Just fry an onion in some oil and brown diced green and yellow capsicum peppers, peeled plum tomatoes and peas. Once cooked, distribute the mixture of vegetables in ceramic containers break an egg into each, sprinkle with grated Parmigiano Reggiano and leave to cook in an oven preheated to 190°C for 10 minutes. Last but not least is the dessert, which might be made using carrots like the classic carrot cake or with fruit, preserves or jams. The important thing is that the dessert should be attractive as well as good to eat.
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Colourful, beautiful and perfumed; as well as symbolising May itself, flowers are the real protagonists of Mother's Day. Even in Roman times, flowers and above all roses were celebrated for the entire month. These flowers are not only beautiful but also useful: petals and stem are used in cooking as both a decoration and an ingredient of some dishes.
Salads with flowers are fresh and easy to prepare: the most frequent combination for example is rose petals with valerian or lamb's ear. Honeysuckle, calendula, daisy, cowslip, violet and nasturtium petals are also excellent.
Whilst preparing these salads though, it is a good idea to bear a few points in mind: in order not to ruin or break the flowers, it is always best to add the petals at the end after having dressed and mixed the salad. To give the dish an extra bit of colour, fruit can also be used. A red apple with its peel and cut into very fine slices can be used as a decorative element.
Little bunches of carrots and leeks are also truly original and certain to be a hit. Cut the carrots into matchsticks, boil in plenty of salted water and bind them into bunches using a strip of leek. The white part of the leek, on the other hand, once boiled can be cut vertically by two centimetres to make a fringe using a sharp knife. Flowers are also the present mothers like best to receive along with chocolates, perfume, creams and springtime essences.
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