Today we made dinner for our mom’s book club. Because some of the members are vegetarian, we decided to do a completely vegetarian meal. For starters we made tomato bruschetta. For the meal, we made: butternut squash soup (served with crème fraiche and pumpkin seeds on the side); a hearty chickpea, tomato, mozzarella, pesto salad; and a traditional Greek salad. We also made garlic croutons for the soup or just to munch on. For dessert we served one of the pies we had made the night before with Taka, along with chocolate chip cookies. We did most of the work beforehand so as not to disturb the book club, but we did make the bruschetta right when the book club arrived….it’s better served fresh.
(Mom said the green skull candles were a good touch since the book club was reading Strangers on A Train, where 2 people are murdered.)

The full meal…

Soup and croutons

Tomato bruschetta

Chickpea salad

The hardest part of making butternut squash soup? Peeling the squash!!

Whew! It’s peeled. Now we just have to chop it!

Chopped butternut squash and onions…

Immersion Blender. Great invention.

Read to serve