Alexandra Stoddard's Welcome Crudite

A special greeting for friends with the purity of a white dipping sauce and the vibrant colors of seasonal vegetables. Gather up the freshest, prettiest vegetables you can find. Arrange them on a shallow basket, a tray lined with fresh greens, or other flat object. Spoon the dip into a pretty bowl and set in the center of the tray. Instead of a bowl, you could hollow out a cabbage and arrange the vegetables around it. Improvise, play, create. Some suggestions for vegetables:

• Snap peas

• Baby carrots

• Asparagus, blanched for 1 minute

• Cauliflower

• Pink radishes

• Cherry tomatoes, stuck with toothpicks

• Endive

White Dip

A simple, white, fresh dip that is so good and isn't full of fat. There is no salt in this because I think so much these days is oversalted. You could have a separate small dish of salt on the side for dipping vegetables in, as the French so often do with radishes. This dip is put together to taste.

• 1 cup cottage cheese

• 1 cup sour cream

• Freshly squeezed lemon juice to taste

• Freshly squeezed orange juice to taste

• Curry powder to taste

• Freshly ground white pepper to taste

• Fresh chives, snipped (optional)

• Salt in small dis

Puree cottage cheese until smooth. Stir in sour cream and remaining ingredients to your taste. Pour into pretty serving bowl or hollowed out cabbage and place on tray arranged with vegetables. Place small dish of salt on the side.