"Purple Crudite Basket"

Those were vegetables I've got for "Crudite"

At this time, I had no idea how the basket will look?

But, I knew I was going to have fun making it.....

Hope everybody had a wonderful "Thanksgiving". 
We went to our friends' home to celebrate.  We have been going there for Formal Thanksgiving Dinners for past many years.  They have been hosting it for a long time.  Every guest was bringing something to the table.  My contribution for the dinner party was making a "Vegetable Basket".  It became my thing to bring for any party.  Last year, hosts of the party even gave me a basket for it.
I didn't know what I'm going to put in the basket.  It is always decided by what I saw at Farmers' Market one day before Thanksgiving.  
This year many farmers were having a poor selection of produce, because we had that very bad flood from the storm at end of the Summer.  But I was still able to find some vegetables I have not used for the "Crudite Basket".
When I was choosing which vegetables to use for the basket, I noticed that many of them are Purple.  Such as Purple Radishes, Purple Top Turnips,  Purple Cabbage.   And I remembered that I have a "Purple Basket from Africa" which I bought at the "Sackler Museum" on the Mall in Washington DC, many years ago. So, I was going to make "Purple Basket" for the occasion.  That will be a very different from the one I made last year.  If you care to see the difference with in 2 Crudite Baskets, you will be able to see the last year's vegetable basket in my blog called "Crudite Basket  for Thanksgiving".

Preparation for the "Purple Crudite Basket"

This is how I clean the vegetables.

Keep them in bowls of water for a few hours.

Some of them I kept under running water for a while.

Water does most of work for you.

One medium sized Purple Cabbage. 

I carefully peeled each leaf, because

Those leaves became Bowls to hold cut & sliced vegetables.

Watermelon Radishes & Chiogga Beets were peeled then thinly sliced. 

 Now, Fun Part starts ! 

Packing the basket with vegetables I washed and cut and sliced.

First, put a plastic sheet for protection for veggies 

and basket itself from the moisture.

Then put reserved Cauliflower Leaves as the liner. 

Each bowl, made with Purple Cabbage,

gets filled with different vegetables.

Transporting is a always big problem. 

But, the shape of this year's basket made carrying it very easy.

"Cocktail Carrots" were carefully washed and kept Green Tops on.

As always, I used Bell Peppers for dips. 

This is what I created for "Cocktail Hour" on Thanksgiving Day.

Dips for Vegetables were,

Miso/Goma, Greek-Yogurt with Pickled Pepperdew Peppers, Avocado/Basil 

The Party was just about to begin !