hot weather soups ~ gazpacho and summer corn chowder

I know most people think of soup as being a fall and winter dish, but the right kind of soup can be just as appealing, delicious and healthy in the summer, too.

In my last post, I had shown a photo of my bowl of gazpacho. Several people asked if I would post the recipe, so here it is, along with another wonderful summer soup. I hope you will give them a try! Both of them are vegetarian/vegan, too.

GAZPACHO

2 med cucumbers, peeled & seeded (easiest to do this with English cucumbers)

2 lbs ripe tomatoes, seeded & chopped
 (I only half-heartedly scrape some of the seeds out - too much needless work)

1/2 med red pepper, coarsely chopped

1 garlic clove, chopped

3 T fresh lemon juice

1 T olive oil

1/8 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Toppings: Fresh corn kernels cut from cob, avocado, red onion, fresh basil

Cut one cucumber into 1/4" dice; cut the other cucumber into chunks.

In blender, in two batches, puree tomatoes, red pepper, garlic, lemon juice, oil, salt, black pepper, cucumber chunks, and 1/2 cup water.

Pour tomato mixture into large bowl; stir in diced cucumber. Cover and refrigerate until well chilled and flavors "marry" - at least three hours, but preferably overnight.

To serve, top soup with corn, avocado, red onion and fresh basil

I'm sure you're familiar with corn chowder...that creamy, hearty concoction of corn, potatoes and carrots. Warms you up on a winter day when you're chilled to the bone. Well, this is a summer corn chowder - no cream or cheese. The key to the deliciousness is that you simmer corn cobs in the vegetable broth. It makes the broth unbelievably flavorful and even a little sweet. You can find the recipe here. 

Here's to good eating and to your health! 

Have a great weekend.

hello august

How did August get here so quickly? For those of us in the northern part of the US, summer just doesn't last long enough. 

I'm welcoming this last complete month of summer by saying hello to a certain young man and all his stuff moving back home after being away at school for three years.

It's only been a few days and we're all learning to adjust (more bodies in the house, more stuff, more dishes to wash, different attitudes and schedules) but so far, so good. I had to smile when I went to do yoga in my office and found Tim's bulletin board and two pieces of artwork in this room...he still needs to hang them up in his bedroom and didn't have enough floor space yet in his own room to lay these pieces down. At least he was neat about it! I simply laid my yoga mat on an angle and did my practice that way. A little aggravating, yes, but not worth making a fuss about.

Hello beautiful and bountiful butterfly garden...

and hello to this gorgeous swallowtail that visited the butterfly garden today.

Hello to tomato plants that are bursting forth with red and yellow cherry tomatoes.

Hello to making gazpacho from just-picked tomatoes, cucumbers and sweet corn from the farmstand down the road.

Hello to summer family gatherings (that's hubby in back, on the left in the red striped shirt and me next to him with the blonde hair and glasses).

Hello to my little self 47 years ago today when I was a flower girl in my Aunt Barb's wedding. (Aunt Barb is the woman in front of me in the yellow shirt in the above photo.)

Hello to August being my birthday month.

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Hello to warm summer evenings on the patio.

Hello to summer sunsets.

What are you saying hello to this month?

Sharing with Thoughts of Home on Thursday.

around my home ~ indoors and out

Hello, friends ~ how's your week been? I was actually sick most of the week; but 

nothing major. Just a raw, sore throat, headache and tiredness. Just enough to make

me feel yucky and not have a lot of energy. I doubled my vitamin D and took a

tried-and-true supplement, Allibiotic. I swear by this stuff. If you take it at the first sign 

of a cold or scratchy throat, you can pretty much avoid a full-blown cold. At least that's

how it's worked for me, Brian, and Tim. (My mom swears by it, too.)

Do you remember the round, wooden mirror I bought a couple of months ago

and couldn't decide where to put it in my living room? I had thought it would look good

on the fireplace wall ~ here's Brian holding it up for me. Nope, too small. And I wasn't 

keen on hanging sconces or anything else beside it to balance it out and fill in the

 white space. 

 

Turns out, I found a better spot for it: on the wall right inside our front entrance. I hung two

 San Francisco prints on the smaller wall to the side. The larger one is a vintage painting

that we picked up in an antique shop last year and the small print is just a page from

a calendar that I framed. The city of SF holds a special place in our hearts, as that's

where we spent our 25th anniversary five years ago.

I think the new mirror looks a lot better than the gold, oval mirror that was there before.

 I was getting tired of the plates, too. The gold mirror is now in the master bedroom.

 

The past two weekends, I've frequented a farm in our area to buy a ton of tomatoes

and some other veggies, as this is pretty much it until next summer. (Waah!) 

We enjoyed one last batch of fresh gazpacho ~ so easy to make in a food processor.

 

Topped with cucumber and avocado, it made a delicious and healthy lunch.

And then with the rest of the crop, I put tomatoes, garlic, and rosemary in a big

roasting pan and tossed all with olive oil and salt. I slow-roasted in the oven for a 

couple of hours until the tomatoes were saucy. The house smelled so good! Then I

packed the sauce into freezer bags. I have five bags in my freezer right now. It'll be

so awesome to use these summer tomatoes in spaghetti sauce, chili and soups 

this winter.

And then going on around my yard...Brian planted these fountain grasses in the little

ditch area in front of our house beside the driveway. We don't have sidewalks in our

neighborhood. The other side of our driveway has a larger ditch and that's filled with 

tiger lilies. I'm happy to see that these grasses are doing well and have grown a lot in 

the past month that they were planted. I can't wait until a few years down the  road when

 they're really tall and they sway in the breeze. Fountain grasses have always been one

 of my favorite plants, especially in the fall.

All my potted flowers are still going strong.

 

 

In my butterfly garden, the sedum is in full bloom. I never used it as a cutting flower until

I saw a few bouquets on blogs. I now have a bunch in a Mason jar on my kitchen table

and I'm happy to report that this is a great cutting flower ~ they still are colorful and sturdy

even after a week on my table.

 

Looks like my cherry tomatoes are pretty much done for. All the leaves are

drying up. Makes me sad. I love being able to step outside my door and pick 

fresh tomatoes off the vine. And cut flowers for the table and pick herbs to use

in my cooking. Can you tell I'm a warm weather person?

Farewell to the Black-Eyed Susans, too.

 

Have a wonderful weekend!

have a seat in my kitchen

I mentioned in my last post that I had done some room rearranging ~

the kitchen included. Would you like to see what I've done?

You might remember that the butler's table used to be in my living room

in front of the window, topped with a lot of plants. I'm loving it here in the

kitchen. It'll be perfect for when we have company...I can use it as the beverage

station and top it with glasses, an ice bucket, and an assortment of drinks.

Or, I could even use it to hold the cutlery, napkins, and plates.

What used to be in this place was a metal and wicker bookcase that

held all my cookbooks. That's been moved into my office/Phil's old room.

And where you see the white stool is where the painted black table was ~

that's now outside on my porch, used to hold potted flowers.

Here's where we eat all our meals. And where Brian and I play board games in

the evening. And where I make out my meal plans and grocery list. And sometimes

read a magazine or the Sunday newspaper. And where I visit with friends

or family members that come over. Isn't that usually how it goes...

that everyone gravitates to the kitchen? 

 I'm still looking for two more chairs for my kitchen table, but for now it's

perfect for just the two of us. Tim is rarely home for dinner as he's usually

working or at school. On my to-do list...painting these chairs! I also want to

eventually get a new rug (finances don't permit right now) and move this

sisal one downstairs.

This is the view of my kitchen as you walk into it from the living room.

On my wish list is tearing out the narrow upper cabinet above the sink

and the three to the right above the counter ~ and replacing that area with

open shelving. We also want to replace the old (original of the house!) range

hood with a microwave range hood. Again, finances stop us from getting these

things done. Please don't get me wrong; I'm not complaining! I am satisfied with

what I have and know I'm blessed to have a decent house and to be a

full-time homemaker right now. That is what I've chosen and I am happy

with my choice. I'm just pointing out what we eventually hope to have done 

in this room. Oh yeah, and we also want to have recessed lighting put in the

ceiling as this ceiling fan fixture is the only light source we have besides the light

over the stove and sink.

Of course, a kitchen wouldn't be complete without something delicious

being whipped up. Here's one of my latest creations - gazpacho! Talk about

perfection in a bowl on a hot summer day when it's too hot to cook. I've

made gazpacho in the past, but it was always pureed. After having the chunky

gazpacho at The Lucky Platter in Evanston, IL last week, I wanted to experiment

with making it like that. I started with a base of Trader Joe's low-sodium Garden

Patch juice and added a jar of my friend's canned garden-fresh tomatoes.

I then added a little bit of chopped onion, garlic, jalapeno, cucumber, and

cilantro and used an immersion blender to make this smooth base. I then added

chunks of all the above except for the jalapeno, but adding a little bit of diced

fennel, green pepper, and fresh cilantro. Oh. My. Goodness. And the longer it sits, 

the better it tastes. I just ate the last bowl for lunch today and am almost crying

 that it's all gone! Yes, it's a little time-consuming to chop up all these veggies, 

but sooo worth it. Another thing that's great about making something like this

is that you can vary the veggies that you put in. You can use red pepper instead

of green. You can use anaheim peppers instead of jalapeno. Basil instead of

cilantro. I think the main thing is to use the freshest tomatoes that you have

or can find. I was so glad to still have a jar of homemade canned tomatoes

since mine aren't ripe in my garden yet!

 Thanks for visiting ~ hope you have a happy weekend!

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