Fruit & Flower Salad With Limoncello

Because it's autumn, the leaves are falling, the sky is sometimes a sad gray and the flowers are mostly gone.  Some of my plants are already preparing for winter and all my basil plants are producing their last leaves before they die.  Autumn is a long sleep of nature that continues throughout winter.  For that I cannot wait for spring, when everything wakes up again.

As much as I like the autumn produce, autumn is still my second least favorite season, next to winter.  The absence of bright colors affects my mood and gray makes me feel ....gray.   Outside is drab and even inside my closet, the theme is black and gray with splashes of white.

I remember when my family and I moved to our third and last house together.  I grew up in houses with white walls and wooden accents.  On our third house, I told my Mom that I wanted to paint my room with bright colors because I was tired of white, even if I like white anyway.  My two brothers liked the idea too and the three of us went off choosing our color motifs.

Naturally, I chose something colorful, a combination of yellow, blue, green and white in matte.  The painter was reluctant to follow my instructions.  I was amused seeing his astonished expression.   He never painted anything more colorful than beige.   While he looked at my choices, he scratched his head with one of my brothers' colors.  Black, gray & white.  I asked my brother often how he could wake up to such drab colors every morning.  Apparently, he loved his color theme.  My other brother chose a more normal combination of beige and white.  

  

Yesterday, I had a sudden inspiration to be a would-be artist and "painted" my fruit plate with a splash of colors, using the blooms of my newly acquired pansy plants to accent it.  This is the result of my artistic moment.  Our dinner guest loved the idea too.  You can create your little sunshine too on your plate.  

Buona giornata a tutti!

 

Fruit & Flower Salad with Limoncello

Ingredients:
Serves 1

• 1 orange
• 1 kiwi
• Red currants
• Untreated pansies 
• Fresh mint leaves
• 1 teaspoon limoncello
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar

Directions:

1. Peel & slice the fruits.  
2. To create the mini skewers, cut the kiwi to the same size as the red currants and insert them in the sticks alternately.
3. Arrange them on the serving dish.
4. Drizzle with limoncello & sprinkle sugar on top.