Holiday Lunch With Family

Because of Rudy's work schedule, we are not able to travel this year for Christmas.  I was so excited when my cousin called to say they wanted to come and visit so they could see us.  May I mention that coming to visit meant a 3 hour drive from Roanoke to Charlotte!  I wanted to make a special lunch for them since they were driving all that way.  I thought about doing a holiday spread but thought that would be too heavy of a meal.  Also, the fact that we were all going to be eating that in a few days anyway.  So I opted for a lighter fare of soup and sandwiches but not your run of the mill soup and sandwiches.

When looking for recipes, I stumbled upon the greatest cooking tool online.  FineCooking.com has a make your own creamy vegetable soup program.  Click here to start creating your recipe.  What is so neat about it is that you probably have most of the ingredients already in your pantry and it puts them together perfectly.  In addition to soup they have a recipe maker for tarts, casseroles, meats and much more.  I cannot wait to try out some of the others.

I picked a cream of Asparagus soup and it turned out great!  I couldn't believe that adding orange juice would be part of the recipe!  Click here to get the full recipe I created using the site. 

I also made some yummy open faced sandwiches.  This was a big time saver because I had them all prepared and just popped them in the oven about 10 minutes before eating.

I made the sandwiches with yummy rosemary bread, topped with olive and basil tapenade, tomatoes turkey and ham and this awesome Irish cheese that flaked so pretty.  Then I sprinkled a little oregano on each of the sandwiches.

Here trhey are out of the oven - yum!

And the finished cream of aspargus soup topped with chopped cilantro.  So, so good!

I also served a salad - greens, chopped apples, pecans, mandarin oranges, cucumbers and a balsamic vinagarette.



Here is the full spread out our little table.

Here is little Reed with his namesake.  My Aunt Frances Reed Baldwin Hodges.  She is one of my most favorite people in the whole world and he is a lucky boy to be named for such a sweet lady.

Such a nice visit with cousin Carolyn and her husband Jeff.