Sunday night found me enjoying the company of family and friends and four savory courses that I prepared and two desserts that a friend made.  I tried a photography experiment too, for which I had really low expectations.  I didn't want to interrupt the dinner party over and over again by turning on my photo lights and pulling out my tripod, so I opted for some flash photography . . . which is generally known to produce crappy food photos.  But instead of using direct flash, which would have definitely resulted in bad photos, I bounced the flash off the ceiling and wall.  The photos I'll be sharing with you this week aren't great but, on balance, I think it's the way I'll go at future dinner parties because it's so much less disruptive than pulling out all of my equipment.

The first course was this crispy kale salad with some locally made "feta" (real feta comes from Greece, of course . . . or so my Greeks insist), a dusting of toasted and finely ground hazelnuts, pomegranate, dried blueberries and a pomegranate vinaigrette that I made from apple cider vinegar, concentrated pomegranate juice and olive oil.  The dried blueberries were a last minute addition, when I learned that my sister-in-law's first pregnancy craving was for pomegranate-blueberry juice.

I made the kale crispy by drying it well in a salad spinner, cutting it into bite-sized pieces without the thick stalk, spreading those pieces in a single layer on a baking sheet, spraying with a light layer of olive oil (from a can of sprayable oil), adding a touch of sea salt and baking in a preheated oven on 375°F for about 12 minutes until crispy.

This was a simple course, but I think it might have been my favorite of the night.  The textures are varied and interesting . . . light and crispy kale, little crisp pomegranate seeds that burst with sweet juice, soft salty cheese, dense sweet dried blueberries . . . all brought together with a tangy vinaigrette and a dusting of earthy toasted nuts.  Yeah, this was a good start to the meal.