Reply #17: Just made it back to this thread.

[emmajane67]

I've a couple of ideas:

1st Italiany: You could have an entree of buffalo mozerella, plum tomoato and basil salad or gazpacho or bruchetta or a couple of those, followed by mains of my fantastic specialty pasta (pasta is a safe vege food for non veges, it is accessable, not to freaky). Get some HUGE shell pasta, cook it, get a couple of aubergines and roast them up so they are all squishy and nice, cook up some mushrooms and spinach too. Stuff the pasta shells with the aubergine, maushroom, spinach and blue cheese then put the shells into a baking dish and splash some pasata over them, with roast garlic, basil etc and if you feel even more cheesey some mozerella on top and bake for a bit, just until hot. Serve with a Roquette or spinach salad with balsamic reduction (basically where you boil down some balsamic dressing so it goes a bit caramelly) and maybe some pesto bread.

2nd Thai fusion sort of thing: I made this for my folks the other day. Entree of dumplings, summer rolls etc followed by a salady thing, layer in this order in a bowl for each guest: Pak choy, baby corn and sugar snaps (or mange tout) quickly braised in soy sauce (or teriyaki marinade), then sliced peppers (of all different colours), red onion, mango, coriander, fine peelings of carrot, green chilli, lemongrass and ginger. Serve with a slice of lime next to the bowl and some green chilli slices for those who want more spice. I then served mine with Quorn chicken on top and my folks with organic wild salmon steaks all of which had been sitting for a couple of hours marinading in (put all this in a mortar and pestle and mash it up) green chilli, lemon grass, ginger, garlic and lime. Next to this I served a bowl of Tom Yam Broth which you can either eat seperately or pour over the salad like you would with a Bun Xa dish.

Hope this helps.

:)