The lilacs are just starting to come out.  If you pick a bouquet of them, the whole room smells the sweet aroma of lilacs.  I love the color of the purple lilacs.

When my son first got his house, he was out trimming hedges and started to trim a lilac bush.  His neighbor came rushing over and actually cried because he was going to cut that lilac bush as she enjoyed them and was afraid of losing them.  Luckily he didn’t hurt them and assured his neighbor that he would not trim any more off it and at the time of year he was trimming, there were no flowers on it and he didn’t realize it was a flowering bush.

In Burlington there is a museum on the Shelburn road that is beautiful to visit this time of year.  They have several buildings and the landscaping has a ton of lilacs all around.

The Lilly of the Valley come out this month also.  They just grow wild along country roads.  I think they are beautiful, also.  The perfume of their aroma is sweet.

Sur la Table has a recipe for Strawberry Rhubarb pie.  It sounds really good and I pinned the recipe on my Pinterest Pie board.  This time of year is perfect for getting strawberries and rhubarb.  All the strawberries from Florida and California are in the grocery stores at a really good price.  Rhubarb is in the Food Co-ops as well as in the grocery stores.

You can even buy that pie plate on Sur La Table.

And they have a lattice cutter for the crust to make it easier to make.

Strawberries in a salad with grilled chicken, pecans and mandarins.  Sounds really good to me.  I have a vinegarette that I make in a small mason jar using apple cider vinegar, a little minced garlic, a little dijon mustard, some Italian herbs that I have in a little grinder and EVOO plus a little sea salt.  I put that dressing on most of my salads.  And I found that if I use a paring knife and make a few slits in the chicken and then marinate the chicken in a plastic baggie using Newmans Italian Dressing  before grilling it the flavor is just really moist and good.

I like cloth napkins and the above pattern is one that I saw Tricia Yearwood use on one of her cook shows.

I don’t have a lot of sweets, but the above cupcake with dark chocolate,sea salt and chocolate covered pretzels looks very awesome to me.  It might not win on cupcake wars because Florian would probably say the frosting was a little much and too sweet.  Maybe just a single swirl or 2 of the second frosting.  I think I watch too many cook shows.

I’m no fashionista, but I like clothes.  The above dress is a classic little black dress.  I wouldn’t mind investing in a dress that wouldn’t go out of style ever and would look good and actually flatter the figure.

I like tea cups.  The pattern on the above cup reminds me of some dishes that my Mom used to have.  My Mom had a dish set that she kept in what she called the China cabinet that had gold trim and she always got it out for special dinners.

I like pretty tablescapes.  I used to like to see all the ideas that Sandra Lee on the Food network came up with.  Sometimes she would really go way out and not keep it simple.  But it was always fun to see the creativity and ideas.