Vegan dinner party

We've had many dinner guests, but these are the first ones to be treated to a vegan feast. My friend Elizabeth, her husband Kevin, and their daughter Heidi were supposed to join us for dinner. But they live an hour away, it was very cold, and Elizabeth was tired and getting sick from a busy work load (attending 8 homebirths in 3 weeks; she's a doc). I had already made the two main dishes, so I called up our pinch hitters, Bryan and Sabra.

I knew that Sabra would be fine with vegan food. She cooks vegetarian dinner five times a week for her family of five (with another on the way). I wasn't sure about Bryan though. Would he eat the tofu? Then I recalled that he lived in South America for two years. People who have lived abroad are more adventurous diners.

That's Jesus in the window above my head. He blesses our meals. There is a painted gourd over Seb's head; it blesses nothing.

I didn't realize that Seb and I were dressed so brightly until I saw these photos.

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While the children ate at the table (soup, sandwiches, salad and veggies), the adults reclined in the living room with homemade Orangina. I had served it to my students earlier that day (studying France), so the seltzer was a little flat. Next time I'll open up a fresh bottle for company. I make it by mixing seltzer with orange juice. The version that we can buy in this country has corn syrup in it, so we have bit it adieu.

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Then we sat down to the table and dined on...

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Carrot Bisque from Vegan with a Vengeance

Cauliflower-Mushroom Potpie with Black Olive Biscuit Crust from Veganomicon

Tofu Hot Wings from You Won't Believe It's Not Vegan

Pea/Green Onion/Grated Radish Salad of my own invention

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Dessert was Angela's Hot Cocoa and Sabra's Oatmeal-Raisin Cookies.

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In this photo, Sebastien is explaining "how it all works". What it is, I have no idea.

This is hospitality #2 for 2009. I have resolved to have 24 of these this year. So far, so good.

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My harshest critic (pictured below), said, "That dinner was actually good. I expected it to be lacking, but it wasn't. Maybe it was because I drank so much." He only had 1/2 glass of white wine.

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Our guests seemed to like the dinner, even saying so in text. Of course they are much, much too polite to say anything negative. I think.