Soup on a cold night

Potato Leek Soup (served cold = vichysoisse)

White Bean and Ham (we used more bacon than ham)

Tomato Soup with Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

Tomato Soup with Parmesan Touilles and Savory Whipped Cream

And then this was just a random amuse bouche type plate. From the top going clockwise: olive tapenade, fire roasted pepper tapenade on a waffle cut potato chip (I forget the French name for this), more olive tapenade on a chip, stuffed mushroom (these were AWESOME), fire roasted pepper tapenade by itself, and a sort of chicken salad mixture thing on a chip, with fried leek strings and savory whipped cream in the middle.

Last night was such a perfect night for this. Winter has just started to hit and it was below 40 outside, so it was nice to warm up with so many wonderful soups. We also made a butternut squash soup but my camera died and I didn't get any pics of it. I plan on spending some time this weekend seeing what soups I can whip up at home with stuff we already have. We're pretty broke right now so I'm going to have to get creative over the next few weeks. And, to add insult to injury, we have a field trip tonight in my World Cuisine class to a really nice sushi-ya up in Denver. Chef said $30-$50 minimum but that you could easily spend $100/person if you get drinks and really heat well. I plan on drinking water and watching other people eat... maybe someone will feel sorry for me and share. :)