Why not a poached fillet of salmon that would be served at room temp? You could sauce it if you wish. That with the latkes, a fresh salad and dessert seems like a pretty well-rounded but not heavy meal.

Or a Salade Nicoise? Has tuna, but tasty.

I was also thinking that a poached salmon would be impressive, but easy to prepare and serve. Although the salmon isn't colorful at all, although it could be served with that kale/cranberry salad and some kind of sauce and it would make a nice textural difference with the crisp salad and the fried latkes.

I do like Nicoise, though, and it wouldn't have to have potatoes, you could still do the latkes. I have also seen recipes for a Cobb type salad without the bacon and with salmon, and for a panzanella with salmon which would be good if you could get some decent tomatoes. I don't remember the Cobb salad recipe, but the panzanella was from Eating Well: http://www.eatingwell.com/recipe/249246/salmon-panzanella/

Most of all, have fun!

Annie

Do watch the quantity of cranberries. Even when I pick most of them out of a salad, it's usually too sweet.

The salmon sounds good. So does the soup.

Are you looking for a composed meal, or a buffet with many choices?

Maybe it would be better to start by thinking about what foods are colorful? Besides kale? Colorful bell peppers, come to mind, and heirloom tomatoes. Maybe some kind of stuffed tomato or pepper? Those are easy to stuff ahead of time and heat up later. It wouldn't matter if the filling were beige if the "container" is pretty.

What about some classic Autumn casseroles? Carrot souffle, zucchini bake, chicken parm. Colorful, inexpensive and easy to reheat. With a few salads like your kale, a bean salad, a corn salad.

I agree with needing colorful foods, and go ahead and load up on the cranberries because I won't hesitate to steal the cranberries from plllog's plate. ;^) How about roasted beets?

I just bought two pomegranates for Hanukkah dinner.

Very colorful.

dcarch

At this point I'm thinking maybe Moroccan chicken with some colorful vegetables in the crockpot and squash soup as a starter. I made some hubbard squash soup the other night that was delish, easy peasy and colorfully golden. I could top it with something red or green too.

And to be a bit "fusion" or whatever you want to call it, I could use diced beets in the kale salad instead of cranberries. Maybe do kasha instead of quinoa. Here's a link to the recipe, one of my faves. I'm seeing now that it doesn't even call for cranberries, that was one of my ad-in riffs as a sub for the more expensive dried cherries, so maybe I'll just do some beet pickles on the side.

https://smittenkitchen.com/2014/03/kale-and-quinoa-salad-with-ricotta-salata/

Edited to add that I'm gonna have to try that salmon panzanella next summer. Or splurge on cukes and tomatoes for the dinner party, they still have them at the store.

I think the pickled beets sound good. There's a Japanese fast casual here that is a favorite of one in my crown and they have great salads that appeal to the Californians, never mind authenticity. One of them is kale and dried cranberry, and it's fab, when there aren't too many cranberries. There's another salad I like with a bunch of other things, and kale and cranberries. That's the one I pick all the cranberries out of (PM, you're welcome to them!). So kale and cranberry is a real thing. The sweet and bitter are good together. Just sparingly. The second salad is plenty sweet from the other ingredients, though. The beets sound just as colorful, but a much more manageable level of sweetness.

Why kasha instead of quinoa? It's easier to make, which is a good enough reason, but the color is not a festive one.

The hubbard squash soup sounds great! Red sweet peppers would go well.

The Moroccan chicken and veg sound pretty, too, and an easy serve at a party. My only concern, what is the dominant color? Usually that kind of thing is either reddish brown or yellowish brown. With the squash soup, I'd go reddish. All beige isn't great, but all yellow isn't to be considered!

The kasha was a joke because quinoa and kasha are both in the buckwheat family and kasha is more traditionally Jewish, but just due to geography. I actually have some multicolored quinoa at home which I will probably use. I don't like buckwheat or quinoa but in this case I can tolerate it in that salad.

If my memory serves me right, my Moroccan chicken recipe has tomatoes in it . . . so is reddish. I think it also has olives in it . . .

I have a friend from the Caucasus. He makes a traditional salad of beets, pomegranates and walnuts. It is delicious, easy and definitely colorful. He only dresses it in a bit of olive oil - I remember him squabbling with his wife (she is from Poland) about adding vinegar. While it may not be correct I add a bit of vinegar.

Update: Dad said he wanted matzoh ball soup. He has new neighbor friends he's invited to dinner, and he's been talking up the soup so he wants me to make it. I think that means I am going with chicken for the protein. I'm torn on what to make. My Moroccan chicken recipes are one with apricots which is only slightly orangeish due to being colored with paprika, and the other one is with saffron and peas and golden raisins and is yellowish. I could add some red pepper and cabbage to either recipe. But neither one calls for tomato. I am getting that mixed up with Mediterranean style chicken. Mom has a great recipe for chicken cacciatore which is flavored with mushrooms and rosemary, but my husband turned up his nose at the idea of mixing Italian style chicken with latkes. I don't know, I'm wondering the same thing. Using one of mom's recipes has some sentimental appeal though. I also have some home made plum sauce that I could use, it needs to get used up and is pretty basically sweet and sour but kind of purplish brown, not particularly pretty but again, I could add red peppers and cabbage.

I will definitely make a beet salad. I have two recipes for a salad similar to the one you describe Agmass. Both are in the Moosewood Restaurant Daily Special Cookbook. I've made both. One is called Lobio and calls for red kidney beans instead of beets! The other is called "Syrian Beet Salad" and is a basic marinade. I was not too crazy about the taste and texture combination of red kidney beans and walnuts when I made the Lobio recipe, although it looks good!

Has to be carrot cake for dessert. My dad is notoriously picky and that's all he would agree to.

Remember, it's food. if you can't get the food colorful enough, put radishes, radicchio and other pretty veg out as garnish and call it a day.

I don't like the idea of kidney beans with your other proposed dishes. The basic marinade for the beets sounds nice. I find beets are best when they're enhanced (e.g., vinegar and herbs) rather than mixed up with a lot of competition. If you wanted to put them with beans, I'd do the little white ones that don't have much flavor other than general beaniness and decide it was okay if they turn pink.

Re the Moroccan chicken, the saffron one sounds delicious. There's no getting out of it being yellow, however. Saffron's a really yellowy yellow, whereas winter squash is more orangey. What color is the finished dish? If they're different tones, it could play visually with the soup. I think they'd taste good in the same meal. Top the soup with chopped parsley or chives and it's green, right? Or go hog wild and do fried sage leaves. :) But if you do that, throw them on at the last second so they don't get soggy.

Or, make your mom's chicken, but change up the flavors. Like take the spices from this Epicurius chicken recipe (I haven't made the recipes, but the spices are right) for your tomato sauce, rather than what you usually use, but otherwise, make it like your mom's chicken parm. Unless...it's not a meat + milk thing, right?

I have no idea what goes with traditional Jewish foods, but this is a very pretty fruit salad that is delicious. I make it for fall and winter dinners. It does used canned fruits for some of the fruit.

https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/easy-festive-fruit-salad/

Yum Sherry I'd settle for that for dessert!