An Vegan Meal

When planning last week's dinner I had meat in mind - not sure why I persist in thinking I might succeed in getting 6 meat eating guests at once - it almost never happens. Last weekend was no exception - in fact, it was extreme.

One guest reported - no lima beans or whole olives please. No sweat. Another pair backed out at the last minute and the third couple delivered, the dreaded, "95% vegan, thanks for asking." She of course would be happy to eat the veggies ... but that's not our style. So I called some vegetarian friends (why not maximize the effort and sort of aggregate the non-meat eaters) and went about building a vegan meal.

I started with olive tapenade, tomato and basil rounds ... (the olives were far from whole), avocado soup - room temperature with soy whipping cream. Budda's delight - which is a several-kinds-of-tofu, several-kinds-of-stock, several-kinds-of-mushrooms, sprouts, peas, and glass noodles (think veggie chineese noodle stew). A struddle made with kale, sun dried tomato and cheese for the rest of us, my stricter guest had rice cheese. Dessert was the only exception - we had raspberry lemon soufle - she's willing to eat eggs if they come from freerange hens.

As far as the meal went - the soup was very smooth and tasty but made me think too much of guacamole - probably says more about my limited view of the precious avocado. I enjoyed the Buddha's Delight and could have stopped there. Alas - we persisted to the next course anyway. The struddle was good but I would have added more goo in the form of dairy next time. Souffle - tasty and dramatic and the most amazing pink.

As is clear, I enjoy cooking, and feeding. But what makes these dinners so great is the conversation and energy of the guests, as a group. This last weekend was particularly fun with jovial, intelligent conversation that all held together. The trick is to get a good mix and try to avoid breaking up into smaller side conversations (especially prevalent in parties larger than 8).

It was a hit and I know this because one pair announced the need to leave early to attend to some other obligations - they didn't get up and out the door until nearly midnight. Ha! We win!