Carol, another idea would be to have a "stone soup" party.
This was previously posted on TKL (in other words, not my
original idea). *smile* I have done this on a number of
occassions. It was highly successful. Please let us know
what you end up doing. Future folks coming to TKL can
benefit from your party.

__________________________The Stone Soup Story

Once upon a time, somewhere in Eastern Europe,
there was a great famine. People jealously hoarded
whatever food they could find, hiding it even from
their friends and neighbors.

One day a peddler drove his wagon into a village,
sold a few of his wares, and began asking questions
as if he planned to stay for the night.

"There's not a bite to eat in the whole province," he
was told. "Better keep moving on."

"Oh, I have everything I need," he said. "In fact, I
was thinking of making some stone soup to share
with all of you."

He pulled an iron cauldron from his wagon, filled it
with water, and built a fire under it. Then, with great
ceremony, he drew an ordinary-looking stone from
a velvet bag and dropped it into the water.

By now, hearing the rumor of food, most of the
villagers had come to the square or watched from
their windows. As the peddler sniffed the "broth"
and licked his lips in anticipation, hunger began to
overcome their skepticism.

"Ahh," the peddler said to himself rather loudly, "I
do like a tasty stone soup. Of course, stone soup
with CABBAGE -- that's hard to beat."

Soon a villager approached hesitantly, holding a
cabbage he'd retrieved from its hiding place, and
added it to the pot.

"Capital!" cried the peddler. "You know, I once had
stone soup with cabbage and a bit of salt beef as
well, and it was fit for a king."

The village butcher managed to find some salt
beef...and so it went, through potatoes, onions,
carrots, mushrooms, and so on, until there was
indeed a delicious meal for all.

The villagers offered the peddler a great deal of
money for the magic stone, but
he refused to sell and traveled on the next day.

And from that time on, long after the famine had
ended, they reminisced about the finest soup they'd
ever had.
______________________________________________________________

At a stone soup party each guest/couple would
bring one or two ingredients that go into soup. The
host/hostess can be responsible for the stock,
whether it is vegetable or meat. We have done this
with absolutely no instructions to anyone as to what
to bring and rarely do we get duplicate ingredients.
And, if we do, that is part of the fun. As each
guest/couple arrives they put their ingredients into
the pot. And, you let it cook until you are ready to
eat.

Typical ingredients are mushrooms, onions,
potatoes, beans, corn, squash, tomatoes, garlic,
soup pasta, cabbage, celery, bok choy, leeks,
turnips, ... ANYTHING.