The No Rules Autumn Lunch Menu

If there are rules for menu planning when having company, today we probably broke them all.

We didn't have canapés or anything that resembled an appetizer.

We thought little about protein.

There was no natural order to the dishes, other than we did serve dessert last.

I wanted a salad but couldn't decide between a beet salad or a tomato salad.  We had all the ingredients for both, thanks to our latest CSA basket and some market shopping.  So we did both.  That is probably breaking a really big rule.  Do people ever do two salads?

I couldn't decide on a 'main' and the mister was really keen to have shrimp and requested our garlic shrimp pasta that we make all the time. Boring to us maybe but not to our company.  And we do love this dish.  I hardly ever have a pasta dish as a 'main'.  Then again maybe we didn't have a main. Maybe it should be called something else.

I have, or did at one point have, 18 pounds of rhubarb in the freezer.  I bought strawberries at the market yesterday and decided on pie.  Is pie a legitimate dessert when hosting?  I don't typically do it if I am pulling out the silverware.

I was lost when it came to planning for hosting company for lunch today. But I didn't really care if I got the menu 'right'. More than anything I wanted to use what I had in my fridge.  Our latest CSA basket played a big part in that.

I figured our company wouldn't care either as long as it tasted delicious and looked reasonably attractive.

Rules be damned.

Roasted beets (red, yellow and candy cane) from Roots and Shoots Farm. Goat cheese. Baby romaine. Pea shoots from O'Grady Farms. Spicy Maple Pecans. Orange and maple syrup dressing.

Garlic shrimp pasta. I used the whole garlic from the last Roots and Shoots Farm CSA basket.

Heirloom tomato salad. Tomatoes from Roots and Shoots Farm and also Acorn Creek Garden Farm. Pea shoots from O'Grady Farms. Chives. Parmesan crisps. Champagne wine vinaigrette.

Very Puckery Rhubarb Strawberry Pie. Strawberries from Just Farms. Rhubarb from Helen & Merrill.