We've enjoyed the roasted red pepper soup for several days now. Sarah took Meg's suggestion and tried it cold for lunch. It was easy to take to work as leftovers. What a nice change from the usual bagel.

Over Labor Day weekend we had friends in from Indianapolis, Brady and Julie Smith. We decided to make dinner for them at the house Friday night and show off our newly acquired cooking skills.

A spinach salad with some of the new ingredients Meg helped us discover, like the jicama, started off the meal. Julie and Brady liked the jicama, but they weren't too impressed with our homemade balsamic vinagrette. It definitely didn't thicken the way it was supposed to.

We asked Meg later what had happened and she reasoned that we probably added too much oil at one time. She suggested we try using our new immersion mixer next time rather than the food processor to try to control the amount of oil added a bit more carefully.

While Brady and Julie announced dinner a success, we felt slightly disappointed with our performance. Our chopping skills are definitely improving, but we mistimed cooking the chicken and the vegetables.

The chicken on the grill cooked much more quickly and had to sit until the vegetables were finished, drying out slightly in the process. We also put too many vegetables in the grill basket at one time resulting in some getting burnt and some not cooking well at all.

The result was good flavor from the fresh herbs Meg left us but a very inconsistently cooked side dish.

We'll just have to keep trying and learning from our mistakes!

Rob and Sarah Schroeder