Dinner Party a la Veggies

Foodie alert; if you are NOT a foodie, be advised there may be more information than you care for herein. Shall we proceed? I invited Cathleen, Garry and neighbors Carl and Susan for dinner last night. There are some dietary restrictions, so I decided on an easy approach; veggies and fish. My little mermaids, the dolphin maidens, assisted me with table decor. I love dahlias but don't have any in my garden. So I bought an inexpensive potted plant and cut off the flowers for my vase.

For snacks I indulged in the creamy Camembert Delice de France, served on baguette with a slather of fig jam (from Dalmatia, thank you) along with the local Beecher's Flagship Chedder on Fruit & Nut crostini. Would you care for cabernet, chardonnay or sparkling Italian soda?

Go-urmet or Go-home.

Visiting in my library the men started to drone on, uh, sorry, discuss sports. I made my excuses and fled back to the kitchen. I had spent several hours preparing the food earlier in the day, but serving and clean-up were fairly easy, as these things go, so I enjoyed the evening with friends. The first course was Creamy Tomato Soup with accompanying oatmeal bread and butter. The second course was Salmon Burgers or Black Bean Burgers with Chipotle Crema. Dessert was Sour Cream Angel food cake with Creme Anglaise and Raspberry/Blueberry compote. I made the soup, black bean burgers, crema and berry compote. Everything else came prepared. Hint: the Creme Anglaise is melted Hagan Daaz Vanilla ice cream.

Creamy Tomato Soup (it is very good)

Serves 6

2 Tbs Olive Oil

1 large red onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 carrot, chopped

2 tsp fresh thyme leaves

1/4 C chopped fresh basil

2 28-oz cans crushed tomatoes

1/2 soup can water

1/4 C oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes

3 Tbs balsamic vinegar

1 tsp baking soda (don't leave this out as it neutralizes the acid in the tomatoes)

1 C or less of heavy cream

Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Heat the olive oil in a large dutch oven over med heat. Add the onion and saute, stirring often, for about 10 minutes until soft. Add the garlic and carrot and saute for another minute.

Add the crushed tomatoes, water, sundried tomatoes, balsamic vinegar, and herbs. Bring to simmer, stirring frequently. Reduce heat to low and stir in the baking soda. Simmer for 30 minutes. Add the cream, stir well and bring to simmer. Do not boil. Makes 6 generous servings.

ps the tomato soup pic is from Flickr. I just cannot manage to merge food styling with food serving!