Simple supper

Fall has officially set in San Francisco. We just had our first 'winter' storm, and while the rain can be gloomy, we all know it means snow in the Sierras!

To embrace the cozy weather, I decided to make my favorite recipe from Cooking Light, Chicken Tortilla Soup. To make up for the calories saved from the 'light' dinner, I followed with homemade chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwiches. Chris was a happy camper!

The tortilla soup has just over 10 ingredients, and the most time consuming part is grilling the chicken. I adore my all-clad 4 quart soup pot (thanks, sissies!). It is perfect for a small soup. You start with 2 cloves minced garlic, and sautee for just a minute. Add in the grilled chicken, 3 cups of low-sodium organic chicken stock, 1 cup of water, 1 tbsp each of cumin and chili powder, and a 10 ounce can of diced tomatos and green chilis. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 15 minutes:

I topped with avocado slices, jack cheese, crushed chips (a must use: hint of lime tostitos), chopped cilantro, and lime wedges. Et voila:

Nothing completes this simple supper like a delicious Corona light:

Since the colder weather always calls for baking, what better for dessert than warm chocolate chip cookies with some vanilla bean ice cream:

Dinner Party for 8

I have been looking forward to hosting a dinner party for 8 ever since I inherited my parent's old dining room table. I had almost as much fun setting it as I did whipping up a delicious meal! It was kind of hard to get a picture to capture just how fabulous the table actually looked (if I don't say so myself...) !

To help set the scene I picked up some gorgeous flowers at the local flower mart. I found some stunning fall colored proteas and winter white hydrangeas, and I couldn't resist a precious bunch of orchids.

On the menu:

Antipasti:

I LOVE antipasti trays. I found all of the ingredients at my local Andronico's: salami, prosciutto, marcona almonds, parmesan cheese twists, salted rosemary crackers, and an assortment of olives.

Ina's turkey sausage lasagna:

This was my first attempt at lasagna. Since I do not own a 9x13 glass pan, I just used two square pans. This is a DELICIOUS lasagna. The blend of cheeses (ricotta, mozarella, parmesan and goat) along with the hot Italian turkey sausage was out of this world. It was also delicious the next day!

Butter leaf lettuce salad with roquefort bleu cheese, bosc pears, candied pecans and a mustard viniagrette:

Chris came up with the ingredients for this delicious salad, and carefully layered each one in this gorgeous salad bowl from my Auntie Di. We pulled out my magic bullet blender to make the mustard and olive oil based dressing. The cheese was definitely the stand out item of the salad!

Pumpkin bread with dulce de leche sorbet:

Unfortunately I do not have a photo of the pumpkin bread (you can thank several bottles of red and sparkling wine), but I can say that it was very easy to put together. I only wish I had used more pumpkin; the recipe called for 1 cup, but the bread was a little dry and could have used more. I'm not sure my guests noticed though, since I topped it with dulce de leche ice cream and a mint sprig. Empty plates are always a good sign!