Canal House Cooks Lunch

There are thousands of cooking blogs -- each week, we bring you highlights from the best. This week, what's for lunch?

Some of us are always hungry -- or at least it seems that way. But who isn't hungry for lunch? Ladies and gentleman, in a time when far too many sad salads are scarfed over one's keyboard, headphones in, we could all do with a reminder of the ritualistic beauty of the midday meal. So we were delighted to find the folks at The Canal House more than agree -- in fact, there's a whole blog devoted to what they eat for lunch. Huzzah, friends, huzzah.

Brainchild of former Saveur editors Christopher Hirsheimer and Melissa Hamilton, Canal House has garnered quite the following among the farm-to-table set with an eye for beauty. Setting up shop in their atelier in Lambertsville, N.J., they continue to put out a serialized quarterly cookbook, complete with recipes and photographs to make you want to hunt down these food luminaries for a meal (the most recent edition is entitled Volume No. 6 The Grocery Store). 

Thankfully for us, the world of their books spills over onto the internet in their rich and useful site. But our favorite new corner of the Canal House site is, unsurprisingly, where they gather for lunch: Canal House Cooks Lunch. While the internet is veritably boiling over with food blogs (and we sure do read a lot of them), here live some of the most exquisite photographs out there and easily the most attractive lunch offerings we could have dreamed up.

Cold spring pea soup with soft whipped cream and lots of fresh chives; open-faced butter sandwiches with hard-boiled egg, wild arugula, sliced radishes, and prosciutto; we're wishing they packed our lunchboxes. But seriously, any meal this beautiful is to be enjoyed. Even a peanut butter and jelly -- provided you use the organic chunky stuff, apricot jam, and nutty old whole grain -- or a simple tomato sandwich will do the trick. Take the time.