Gracious Goodness Around the Table: Lunch

Welcome to Gracious Goodness Around the Table: Lunch. This is the second in our series of cookbooks focused on serving others from your kitchen. Breakfast and Dinner round out this series with each book focusing on specific techniques and methods of taking care of people by serving them delicious food. We believe good food served by those with loving hearts nourishes not only the body, but the heart, mind, and soul as well.

Darlene and Kelly worked together at Butterfly Meadows Inn & Farm in Tennessee for several years. Lunches were served to one up to one hundred guests at a time. Thousands of guests were served around the table there. You may have been among them. If so, we are pleased to welcome you back to the table within the pages of this book!

Whether you are a new cook or seasoned chef, we have written this book with you in mind. You will find here great and proven recipes that have been adapted from the kitchen at the inn for your home kitchen. Our goal at the inn was to ensure that every meal came out consistently delicious for each meal. We know that is your goal as well!

This book is organized into four sections: entrée salads, soups, sandwiches, and side salads. You can use any of these recipes to serve family and friends around your table for a relatively quick and easy meal. And even though these recipes are in the lunch book, they can also be enjoyed for a dinner meal.

The concept of serving from your kitchen can often mean having a portable meal or dish. Most of these recipes are easy options for transporting food so you can serve others outside your walls. And that's the focus of our techniques and methods for this book-serving beyond your kitchen.

All without setting your hair of fire!

There are so many places you can take a tasty meal made with love from your kitchen. Here are a few suggestions of the many situations in life where we can take food to share with others:

• a family with a new addition
• a teen get-together
• someone who life has overwhelmed in some way
• someone sick or healing from an injury
• someone facing a significant loss
• a friend gathering or church potluck

Darlene Bobo began her journey of sharing with others the gift of good food long before opening an inn in the hills of Middle Tennessee. The inn is where Darlene and her coauthor Kelly Cox met, sharing their mutual love of food and serving others with the thousands of guests who stayed there.Darlene's curiosity about food and its preparation began at home, cooking with her mother and grandmother. Reading recipes in the newspaper and imagining the results fueled a desire to learn more. She completed several culinary courses to inspire her creativity and give her a better understanding of how to prepare delicious food to share with others, and years later, with guests at the inn.

Kelly grew up enjoying meals cooked at home and watching her mom experiment with food preparation in the family kitchen. Kelly began making wedding cakes for friends and family while she was in high school. She worked as a pastry chef for several years, then decorated wedding cakes professionally. She operated her own bakery in upstate New York before moving to Tennessee. She is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America.