We’ve been having very warm and sunshiny weather for the last two weeks and it really feels like summer already, so we had a few friends over for May punch with sweet woodruff and strawberries and to have the first barbecue of the year.
The May punch (I know it’s not May yet, but the timing was good this weekend for everyone so we were a week early) turned out really nice. I have sweet woodruff growing on my balcony and froze the leaves for two hours before letting them sit in white wine for another 1-2 hours. The strawberries add sweetness and the punch smelled deliciously of the sweet woodruff.
Everybody brought along something and we had lots of salad, tomatoes with mozarella cheese and mizuna leaves from our balcony, feta quiche and garlic butter.
Grilled feta cheese with pepper puree and dried tomatoes (soo delicious).
It was warm enough to sit outside and talk long after dark.
I do hope spring makes a comeback, but I quite liked this summer preview as well.
little home by hand
little home by hand 
That food looks sooo delicious! I really wish that I could have been there and tasted it 😀
By the way, what is woodruff? I have never heard of it before, and I was just wondering what it is?
I hope that summer comes by here soon 😀
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Thanks and I hope summer comes by your place soon too! Sweet woodruff is a plant that grows wild in the woods everywhere around here (it’s also called master of the woods or, in german, Waldmeister). There’s a substance called coumarin in it that makes it smell nice and sweet but which can be toxic in large quantities. Therefore sweet woodruff shouldn’t be eaten but it can be used to flavor May wine or May punch, as long as you only leave it in up to two hours. The flavour of sweet woodruff is often replicated chemically and added as a flavour to sweets around here.
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Yum! Great pics and the food! Wow! Sounds like a nice evening.
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Thanks Lynda, it was! I must say, my new year’s resolution of eating better this year is coming along very well, we really make an effort and we’ve been eating some really nice stuff 🙂
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Quiche = comfort food! Yum.
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I actually never had quiche before, my friend made it and brought it along. It was quiche with feta cheese and leeks and it was sooo good 🙂 Definitely comfort food!
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Great photos of what sounds like a really nice night.
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Thank you 🙂
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Oh my!!! Everything looks and sounds so wonderful!
We are also having a summer preview here and have enjoyed several outside meals now, but like you, I am ready to return to spring for at least a little longer. 🙂
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Thanks Amber! It really was a nice, and needed, weekend. Glad the weather is this good over at your place as well. Since I wrote the post we’ve been having some much needed rain but that’s ok after the long sunshine, it really cleaned the air and it feels like spring again 🙂
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oh, i don’t know this woodruff of which you speak..i’m off to google it and then see if i’ve got any in the garden! 🙂
isn’t the weather divine! ours has been too and tho’ it’s slightly cooler this week, it’s still sunny and gorgeous! yay!
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Julie, I’d be surprised if the woodruff didn’t grow in Denmark! Have a look in the woods around where you live, it mostly grows in shady spots. The scent and flavour only develops after it is wilted, so you won’t be able to tell it from that immediately.
Yay to a beautiful spring! I hope it it continues sunny and fresh 🙂
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