Fruit and Grains Salad w/ Edible Flowers and Strawberry Vinaigrette inspired by Garden Spells

This isn't my first post inspired by the enchanting novel Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen.  I love to sit down with the Waverly family and conjure up a little of my own inner magic when I see bushes bursting with beautiful berries, trees dripping with ripe fruit, and colorful flowers shouting and waving in the bright sun.  I want to host an intimate ladies luncheon and serve "biscuits with lilac jelly...lavender tea cookies...and tea cakes made with nasturtium mayonnaise".

Or perhaps an outdoor garden party in the evening shade, sitting under a canopy of bougainvillea and serving "fried dandelion buds over marigold-petal rice, stuffed pumpkin blossoms, and rose-hip soup" which ensure that my company ignored any flaws at my home and reveled in its beauty.  Or maybe a picnic with people who are on shaky ground with each other and a basket heavy with rose geranium wine that ensures a return to happiness.

Marigold Corn Pone and Marigold Honey inspired by Garden Spells

A few weeks back, I read a fun book.  It was the story of family and their gift of magic...unique to each person, yet intertwined through the bonds of blood and family lore.  Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen weaves the story of Claire Waverly a woman after my own heart, a whiz in the kitchen who prepares her food using the herbs, plants, and edible flowers that grow on her mysterious family land.

She cooks and bakes with intent, infusing the food with the natural power that nature has to offer.  All of the Waverlys are born with their own unique gifts, but Claire and her connection with nature and the kitchen were what inspired me to head into the kitchen today.  Neighbors are both leery and mesmerized by the Waverly family, their seemingly magical gifts...and that enchanted apple tree which grows in their garden and is said to reveal the future to those who eat from its fruit.