The Leonard Home

For Father’s Day this year, I really wanted to go all out. I had been watching The Lost Kitchen on Max and the more I watched, the more I convinced myself that, as someone who loves to cook, it wouldn’t be too hard to make an 8 course meal.

Try as he might, my husband (who was convinced that this was too expensive and exhausting of an endeavor) couldn’t dissuade me. I did the shopping, I gathered the family, and I settled in to cooking!

When I set out to create my dream menu, I wanted to serve food that felt summery, but wasn’t too fussy or complicated. After all, I was cooking 8 courses by myself.

What I served:

– Charcuterie, with delicious homemade roasted almonds

– Thai chili shrimp: just two little shrimp served with avocado- yummy!

– Steak Sandwiches: my favorite excuse to eat fresh focaccia and caramelized onions

– Spicy Tomato Soup: this was a recipe that I found that was really cooked in the Lost Kitchen, so it had to be part of the menu!

– Grilled corn salad: a simple summer salad with grilled corn, tomato, green onion, lettuce, and a tasty vinaigrette

– Lemon sorbet: super cute and easy lemon rosemary sorbet recipe, served in the lemon peels!

– Steak medallions: our entree, served with rainbow carrots and mashed potatoes

– Pound cake: the sugar and flour free recipe I always make for my low carb dad, served with homemade whipped cream and macerated strawberries

I wanted my family to know what I would be serving, so I created menus for the table using Canva. It was quick, easy, and because I don’t pay for a premium account, free! I was only out a couple sheets of card stock that I already had, and the ink it took to print.

I had a lot of extra lemons from the bag I bought for my lemon sorbet, so I made place cards for the table out of the extras. These were super easy and turned out so cute! I just pulled some leaves off a bush in my backyard and wrote everyone’s name on them with a white ink paint pen. I attached the leaves onto the lemons with push pins, and I love how they looked! It really gave off the summery vibe I was going for.

I kept the table set with our everyday placemats and cloth napkins, but I added a little pizzazz with pretty beeswax candlesticks and some branches from the same bush that I used for the place cards.

After all the candles were lit, it looked so magical. I’m so happy with how everything turned out!

I don’t think I’ll be making an 8 course dinner anytime soon- I was so busy I didn’t get a single picture of my food, and since our kitchen isn’t open to our dining room, I missed out on hanging out with my family. But I did have a fun time and I’m very proud of the results! Next time I’ll just plan something a bit easier!