A very special richly delicious soup, to be followed by a chef’s salad, fresh fruit and coffee.

• ½ pound fresh crab meat—or 1 can cleaned Geisha crab meat
• ½ cup dry sherry
• ½ can condensed pea soup
• ½ can condensed tomato soup
• 1 cup heavy cream

Mix the crab meat with sherry and let it stand. Combine soups and cream and bring to a boil very slowly.

Reduce heat sharply, add the crab meat and sherry, and simmer for 10 minutes, adding a little extra milk or cream if the soup is too thick.
Serve in soup bowls with a tablespoon of dry sherry added to each.

• ½ pound raw cleaned shrimps (or a thawed frozen package)
• ¼ cup butter
• 4 large fresh mushrooms, coarsely chopped
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 tsp soy sauce
• ½ tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp Nepal pepper (or ¼ tsp black pepper)
• 1 tsp paprika

Sauté shrimps in butter for 4 minutes, add mushrooms and cook 10 minutes over gentle heat.

Separately combine sour cream and seasonings, color with the paprika and heat.
Combine shrimps and sauce; cook gently for 10 minutes or until thick and velvety.
Spoon the mixture into 4 buttered ramekins or large scallop shells, dust with grated Parmesan, and brown for a minute under broiler flame.

• ¾ cup butter or margarine
• ¾cup flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ⅛ teaspoon pepper 4 cups hot milk
• 3 pints oysters
• 2 cups diced raw celery
• ¼ cup minced green pepper paprika or parsley

Melt butter or margarine. Blend in flour, salt and pepper, and stir in hot milk gradually while cooking over low heat. When sauce thickens, add oysters, celery and green pepper. Continue cooking over low heat until edges of oysters curl. Serve on hot toast, between split biscuits or in patty shells. Sprinkle with paprika or minced parsley.

Yield: 12 servings.

Allow 8 to 12 Cherrystones per portion for a main dish; 4 clams for each appetizer service. Have the clams opened at the fish market and packed on the half-shells.

Sauce:

Heat the oven to 450.

Remove clams from shells and discard the juice. Bed the shells firmly in a baking pan, surrounded by crumpled alumi­num foil to keep them upright (rock salt is fancier, if you have it).

Cream butter and anchovy paste, distribute evenly among the shells. Insert a clam in each shell and sprinkle with lemon juice.

Combine chopped pepper, pimiento, onion, salt and pep­per, and distribute among the clam shells. Top with bacon bits, and bake until top browns: about 20 minutes.

• 1 ½ pounds cleaned large raw shrimp
• ½ cup olive oil
• ½ cup minced parsley
• 4 minced garlic cloves
• 2 minced shallots or scallions
• ¼ tsp oregano

Sauté shrimp in olive oil for 5 minutes over high heat, shaking or stirring briskly until cooked. Season with salt and pepper and remove to a hot ovenproof platter, draining off the oil.

Add remaining ingredients to olive oil, sauté over medium high flame for 3 minutes, shaking the pan briskly. Pour sauce over shrimp and broil for 2 minutes.