Had I taken my camera to Feast the other night I would have gotten this shot of our Baha'i community. But Marc (second from the right in the lower half of this photo) snapped it, just as all of us were preparing to leave after our gathering.It was a wonderful feast, with music and prayers, fellowship and food. Our hostess, Therese (pictured on the left side of me) adds special touches to enhance the evening, like the fragrance of roses, and a beautiful song called "Lord of the Mountain" which I really enjoyed. It resonated with a lot of images in nature which I appreciate.
Yes, George played some of his own music, too. And, we had a chance to catch up with friend Marc, from China, and his new wife Farnoosh (pictured lower right hand corner). They were passing through Tacoma on their honeymoon, visiting his brother Peter, a physician here. Farnoosh and I started discussing healthy recipes, and I was so pleased that the three of them came over to dinner yesterday.
Our friend Walter came for dinner also (pictured on my right) and old friend Jamie. At Feast we'd told the friends that Jamie's house just burned down this week, and Farnoosh immediately asked if they could contact him, to help him in some way. She was ready to roll up her sleeves and start shoveling ashes and debris. Her interest in him was so genuine, that when we all settled down to dinner, she pressed for something she could do to help him. Jamie and his family are handling all of this quite well, although it is a very difficult time.
Jamie is a photographer, so part of the evening we went through some of his Flickr photos, a slide show. Had he not put them here on Flickr, many of his photos would have been lost in the fire. Family photos, artistic work, and early Tacoma and Seattle photos were saved due to storage at Flickr.
I spent the early morning yesterday preparing our dinner. Green beans with roasted vegetables from my garden, chipotle soup with brushetta on garlic toast, and cherry cheesecake pie. All of these were great recipes that could be prepared in advance, which is what I needed as I had an afternoon Study Circle right before dinner. That meant that the bulk of my cooking had to be done ahead of time. At the last minute I spread on the brushetta and feta on the garlic bread, cooked the green-beans, and applied the cherry/raspberry/blueberry topping to the pie right before serving.
George has grown abundant green beans this summer, so I roasted them with large chunks of carrots, onions, zucchini and potatoes from my garden. Then, I briefly stir-fried tiny minced onion, carrot, yellow pepper, red onion, and green and yellow zucchini to crumble over the beans at the last minute, as a garnish.
I made my own breadcrumbs, toasting them with olive oil and Italian spices, then rolling the roasted vegetables in them. While roasting the vegetables, I spray them with olive oil. This gives them a wonderful sheen and helps to get them crispier. 
The chipotle soup was foremostly a corn chowder, with garlic, onion, leeks, carrot, potato and herbs from my garden. At the end I chopped a couple of hot peppers to add the punch, then removed them, as my soup was going to simmer on the stove for several hours until the meal was served. I didn't want the punch to overwhelm the flavors of the soup.
This cherry cheesecake pie is one of my favorites, with a moderately sweet filling and fresh raspberries and blueberries added to the cherry pie filling. It is so easy to make. I had to laugh, though. I was so swamped all day yesterday that I forgot to take my visor off from my early morning jog, and I wore it all evening until I discovered that I still had it on!
