Thanks for the ideas so far. For the cold soup, I've decided on
carrot-ginger. (I really like the white garlic soup idea, but I think
I'll try that some time when I don't have a guest coming over. It looks
easy, but I know not to experiment at the critical moment.) For the
salad, I'm now undecided between quinoa and noodle salad. I've been
substituting quinoa for millet, couscous or bulgur for so long that I
forget that it's a little unusual. Quinoa works well because it holds
its shape and is just unusual enough but not so weird that people aren't
willing to try it. (And back from my health food days, I like it
because wheat is invariably somewhere else on the menu, and the health
foodies insist on variety.) Bob makes a good point about flavors
matching so the ginger soup and sesame dressing should work.


I think I'm set on the vegetable skewers idea too and some sort of
chicken. Even relatively plain work.


Keep the ideas coming even if they're in opposition to what I just wrote.


--Lia