The last two weeks have been a whirlwind but a time of extreme happiness for all of us here. Last weekend we had Mimi's graduation party. Yes, we were having her party a week before graduation but that was part of a grand strategy. You see the first time all of us mommies graduated our first born babies, we learned that if we have our parties on graduation day, we can't go to each other's parties.

Many weeks ago at Tuesday Morning Coffee , we pulled out our calendars and started our strategic planning. Gay and I would have our parties the weekend before graduation. Some other friends will have brunches on the last day of school, and others will have staggered parties on graduation day. Ah, now there's some "Mommy Network" goodness.

When planning a hallmark party such as this, we could only do one thing and that was to put out a menu filled with family favorites, but especially Mimi's favorites. When it comes to food, my children have gone completely Lebanese on me. Though they like many sorts of foods, when you say "favorites" these time consuming dishes come flowing out of their mouths, like:

Grape Leaves,

Spinach Pies

Tabbouleh, vegetable salad, and homemade pickles and …..

Hashweh,homemade yogurt, hummus and homemade cheese.
  
 

There was one Swedish dish and that would be the salmon fillets. Our friend John made the most incredible smoked salmon roses to place on the platter. He taught us how:

Take one slice of smoked salmon and start rolling from one end to the other.

Place these little rolls on a tray so that you can wrap more salmon around this.

Once your salmon are rose sized, fold down the ends to make it look like a blooming rose.

Now here comes the magic. Once the roses were all complete, John took some other edible foliage and made a salmon platter to die for. Isn't this amazing?

Tomorrow is another Fox Diary Post. Have a great day and we'll see you then.