summer « Stars

(I promise to post photos later!)

I really can’t remember the first time I ate gazpacho. But I feel like I’ve loved it for a long time, and when I see lovely ripe tomatoes at the Farmer’s Market and it’s so stinkin’ hot, I have to make gazpacho.

I love it for a bunch of reasons. I love being able to taste every single vegetable in each bite. I love how it chills me right to the core. And I love when it’s so spicy my eyes water.

After looking through a bunch of recipes, I made my own. Mind you, this is not traditional, so you won’t find bread in this soup, but you will find seasonal ripe veggies. If they aren’t ripe or local, they just aren’t worth eating.

Enjoy!

4-6 large tomato chopped – 1 cup put aside

1 large cucumber – peeled and chopped – 1 cup put aside

1 large red onion – chopped

3 large stalks of celery – chopped – 1 cup put aside

1 yellow pepper – chopped – 1 cup put aside

Cilantro (amount to your liking) – chopped

1/4 cup Red Wine Vinegar

1/4 cup Olive Oil

1/4 cup Lemon Jiuce

4 cups Tomato Juice (I use V-8, seems to have the most real food ingredients)

Salt and Fresh Ground Pepper

Hot Sauce

Makes about 8 servings.

Put chopped veggies and cilantro in a blender or food processor and pulse to desired consistency. I do it just a wee bit of processing, I like to chew this soup and taste each vegetable in each bite.

Pour into a non-reactive bowl, add the Red Wine Vinegar, Olive Oil, Lemon Juice, Tomato Juice, salt and pepper / hot sauce to taste and mix together. My blender and food processor aren’t big enough to hold it all, but if they are, you can put it all in and blend away.

I’m thinking about other gazpachos. I’ve had a beet gazpacho that was so amazing I just can’t forget about, and it might be my next gazpacho….

Summer is like a big sigh. It feels good. Makes you want to breathe more. I ended this past winter thinking to myself that I need to try to remember the smallest details, especially with Iz. To enjoy the simplest pleasures and remember how they make me feel, and even how Iz feels. I tried to make a list of things that I thought would be important, but quickly realized how futile that is, life just happens and enjoying it, and remembering to enjoy it makes me cherish our little family even more.

We spend quite a bit of time in our little garden (or le jardin as my mom would call it and I know call it too!). I swore up and down last fall that I would keep a garden journal this year, and well, this is as good as it gets!

I planted these all in early May, our Micro Spicy Greens, Spinach, Arugula, Rainbow Chard, Mesclun and Peas. Everyday we eat from this garden. I’m about to plant more greens for the next round. I should have done it about 2 weeks ago, as this little garden is just about done. Note for the journal.

This bed was planted almost a month later, on June 14 and everything except the Purple Queen beans are starts from my lovely neighbor. Eggplant, Brussels Sprouts, Cabbage, Pepper, Zucchini and the beans all the way in the back. Hopefully by the end of this week, my tomato garden will be finished. I plant heritage cherry tomatoes, and they have all sprouted from the cherries I didn’t pick, but fell to the ground last season. I have 6 different varieties, we’ll see when they fruit what I have left!

Iz is becoming a pro at eating from the garden. She tries it all, and has spread her picking habits to the lawn, where, thankfully, she asks if she can eat something before popping it into her mouth. We’ve eaten the clover and sorrel, and she’s got quite the taste for all these greens.

Our peas have started to bloom. Iz is thrilled, since we planted these from seed on May 7, everyday she asks if she can go to the garden and eat the peas. Soon – we are almost there!

A surprise radish. Surprise because I didn’t read the package carefully. Micro Greens Spicy Mix from Botanical Interests.

Peonies leave me just speechless.

We have about 7 lilac bushes, and the smell on the warm day is enough to sweep you away. The butterflies love it and we sat and watched hundreds of them for a few days flutter in the warm yummy air from bunch to bunch.