Vegetable Soup

When spring rolls around each year, I know it is my turn to invite the nine other women in my book club to my house for dinner and a literary discussion.Southwestern-style dishes struck my fancy this time, so chilied almonds will begin the evening, followed by a robust tomato-vegetable soup seasoned with cumin, hot peppers and cilantro and garnished with shredded Monterey Jack cheese. Homemade bread and a green salad tossed in a honey-lime vinaigrette will complete the main course. To end the night there will be orange and raisin brownies.

A seasonal sampler of soothing, fresh-tasting cream soups is something any cook can appreciate. Make them colorful, nutritious and a whiz to prepare, and you've got the cream of the crop.Each of the soups below pairs a fresh vegetable with a soup base thickened with nonfat dry milk. Pick your favorite vegetable to blend with the soup base. Thin the soup with liquid milk or stock if it is thicker than you prefer.Cream-of-Any-Vegetable SoupServes 4 to 61/4 cup butter1 medium onion, thinly sliced, or 1 bunch green onions, sliced2 tablespoons each: flour and noninstant nonfat dry milk1 quart milk (preferably whole)

Waterfront Kitchen opens on Friday, Oct. 28, in the Living Classroom's Frederick Douglass-Isaac Myers Museum in Fells Point. The new restaurant, which seats 75 inside and 100 outside on a waterside promenade, is owned by Charles Nabit and Michael Klein. Levi Briggs has been named chef de cuisine. Jerry Pelligrino is credited with the menu's creation. On the eve of the restaurant's opening, his menu was still being tweaked, said Waterfront Kitchen's general manager Jamie Heffron. But as it stood on Thursday evening, the menu included eight appetizers and six principal plates.

Fall Festival - Sat., Nov. 12, noon-5 p.m., Savage United Methodist Church, 9050 Baltimore Ave., Savage. Homemade soups, sandwiches, coleslaw and potato salad available to purchase. Bake sale and craft sale. 301-725-7630. http://www.umcsavage.org . Harvest Bazaar - Sat., Nov. 19, 9 a.m.-2 p.m., First United Methodist Church, Fellowship Hall, 424 Main St. Handmade crafts, silent auction, bake sale, New to You table. Vendors Tastefully Simple, Scentsy Candles, Pampered Chef, Twins Silver Dream Jewelry, Hawkeye's Barn Fine Woodworking and individual jewelry makers.

Need a haircut? Have a problem with your car? Looking for flowers for your holiday table or a new lunch spot?Forget the Yellow Pages. Instead, turn to Harford Technical High School.It's a user-friendly school that offers a variety of services to the public.During a recent open house at the school, beautiful floral centerpieces were for sale at a reasonable cost of $12.Prices are usually lower than retail rates for customers, but the students are the real beneficiaries.Eleventh-grader Julie Brinegar said that working with flowers is not only interesting but good for her future.

John M. Risher of Greensburg, Pa., sent in a request that was short, asking for a dish that will surely be sweet. "I would like to know the recipe for making apple butter," he wrote. Betty Mullins of Spring Lake, N.C., responded with a recipe that she says came from the Pillsbury Cookbook. Apple Butter MAKES 4 HALF pint jars 8 cups peeled and cored apples 2 cups apple cider or juice 1 1/2 cups sugar 1 teaspoon lemon juice 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/4 teaspoon ground clove 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice In a microwaveable bowl, add apples and cider, loosely cover and microwave for 12 to 15 minutes, or until tender.

A Snickers bar cake to send your taste buds into orbit and a jar of bread-and-butter pickles for the perfect gift is the intent of this offering.Patricia Cox of Ellicott City requested the pickle recipe, which she has used to make holiday presents. One was given to her many years ago by her husband's aunt, but it has been lost. "It had lots of turmeric, mustard and celery seed. Also, our family loves them," she wrote.Doris Weisert of Shady Side sent in Chef's choice, which was from the 1944 Kerr Home Canning book.

Someone asked me recently if this was the year that the tapas trend was finally going to go away. In fact, it's not a trend anymore; it's the way many of us prefer to eat. Even with a restaurant like Tapas Teatro , which does so many things right, there are still some potential perils in a tapas-based evening. Food flies at you fast, and it's hard sometimes to keep pace. The table's real estate can get overpopulated, and you can start to feel as if the meal is slipping into anarchy.

Crab soup is like mother's milk to Marylanders, who are likely to begin any seafood feast with a cup of steaming tomatoes and vegetables that are host to chunks of gleaming crab meat. Cream of crab soup, with its thick base of cream and its hint of sherry, certainly has its devotees. But there is something common, and comforting, about the spicy vegetable soup, especially at harvest time. Overripe tomatoes, the last of the Maryland sweet corn, fresh beans and limas and our old friend Old Bay make this soup a winner - literally - at seafood festivals and cooking contests.

It's soup weather out there. Whether it's a creamy vegetable-based opener or a hearty entree, homemade soup evokes the warmth of the hearth, the glow of an early evening sunset.A favorite soup for chef Katie Schma is smoked butternut squash soup. The blend of squash, apples, carrots, onions and chicken stock "tastes just like what it sounds like -- buttery," she says. Although she smokes the squash for the restaurant version, the soup still has plenty of flavor without this step."The apples and carrots give it sweetness," she says, noting that the soup has a lovely golden color, indicating it's rich in beta carotene.