Orange Supper

The orange supper is a prelude to the Great Pumpkin Carve-Off, held during the last week in October each year, but hosted for the first time by Rosie Beaucoup, who was content to prepare the meal and complete the clean up while others used their artistic talents to produce Jack-O-Lanterns for the competition. Rosie Beaucoup likes to save her skills for knitting, gardening, and paper decorating.

No matter how formal or how casual the meal, we always seem to have something on the table from France. This evening in late October, we are having a very relaxed supper of carrot soup, velvety meat loaf, mashed potatoes baked in ramekins, oven roasted beets, and broccoli. Followed by cheese, homemade apple pie and ice cream. And today's French connection - the napkins, which we purchased at an open air farmer's market in Lille on our very first visit to the country.