The other day we attended a dinner party where the hostess' theme was built around bread bowls. I thought this was a cool coincidence since I'd just gotten Dan's new Sourdough Bread Bowl Cookbook and have been exploring it.

Well, her party gave me so many great ideas on what to do with the cool recipes in this book. For starters, this gathering was meant to kick off the "Bowl" season (footBowl, that is), so she used bread bowls for everything. It was so pretty and one of the cleverest theme parties I'd been to in a long time.

As we gathered, we munched on veggie sticks and artichoke dip, presented in a bread bowl. There were assorted chips as well, served in extra large bread bowls meant to be used with her award-winning salsa, that was served in - you guessed it - a bread bowl.

Things were set up buffet-style, and there were three crockpots - one with clam chowder, one with stew, and the third held an alfredo chicken chowder. All were scrumptious, by the way, and all choices were served in bread bowls, of course.

Even the big tossed salad was presented in an extra-large bread bowl. She'd hollowed it out well, then lined it with plastic wrap. Who would've thought?

But the really fun touch was barrel glasses set in smaller bread bowls that held a variety of hot chocolates! While we had to drink using two hands, we didn't care - the surrounding bread kept the drink nice and hot and served as a drink coaster and hot pad for our hands, all at once.

This clever lady also used bread bowls as her centerpiece - each one holding bright, Autumn mums (in their original pots). We're all familiar with the idea of using bread bowls for soup, but what a fun approach to use them to hold other things as well!

NOTE: If you haven't seen it yet, do check out this new Cook'n Cookbook. It's on sale right now for $8.99. I'm getting a few to give as hostess gifts when I throw my own "Bowl" party!