delicious tomato soup, served ICE cold!
last week our work group had our monthly birthday pot-luck. we try to get together at least once a month, to preserve whatever sanity is left among us and eat good food. we had one july birthday and she requested salads as a theme. i made my rockin' tomato and avocado salad (both are thinly sliced and sprinkled with italian seasoning, garlic powder, salt, pepper and drizzled with red wine vinegar and olive oil) and we also had fruit salad, pasta salad, and homemade orange-chai and dark chocolate ice cream (this was beyond good). the woman whose birthday was this month decided to join in and make gazpacho. she's made it for us before and it's so delicious. it's tasty and refreshing. after lunch i asked her for the recipe. it's a hardcopy page and she's written all over it. it was a sad little recipe to start out with, but she's made some great decisions to make it better.
gazpacho
32 oz of tomato juice (depending on the size of the bottle, you could use the whole thing and just increase everything else slightly)
1 small red onion, minced
2 C fresh tomatoes, finely diced (as finely as you can)
1 C bell pepper, finely diced (any color works, i used yellow for this one)
1 cucumber, diced
2 scallions, finely sliced (i use the WHOLE scallion)
1 clove of garlic, chopped (i ended up using 3, whatever you like - i like a lot of garlic)
~1/4C fresh basil, loosely chopped (i used the chiffonade method)
~1/4C fresh italian parsley, chopped
2 T red wine vinegar
dash of ground cumin
dash of tabasco sauce (or any other hot sauce and however much you want - it's to taste)
salt and pepper to taste
combine all the ingredients and chill for at least 2 hours before serving. i chilled mine overnight and it was delicious.
verygwen asked a few days ago what were good ways to enjoy fresh tomatoes. this is a GREAT way to use fresh tomatoes. i used heirlooms from the farmers' market. so yummy!
i served this with grilled cheese sandwiches made with sprouted wheat bread and 2-yr-old tillamook cheddar. it was a play on the favorite: tomato soup and grilled cheese. it was a great combo here - cool and crisp gazpacho with warm and creamy grilled cheese.
+_+_+
i've got another freakin' 10:10pm softball game tonight. so annoying...
+_+_+
marshall's company is holding their annual summer company party this friday. the theme is "the big top" and it's up to individuals if you want to dress up with the theme. last year was "summer of luck" and they rented casino tables and the overall theme was rat-pack vegas. marshall wore a suit with a black skinny tie, carried a toy tommy gun and had a cigar hanging out the side of his mouth. i wore a red cocktail dress with a red feather boa and carried a long cigarette holder in one hand.
(marshall's standing behind me)
it was a really fun night and they had some GREAT raffle prizes. we're up against the choice of whether or not we want to dress up this year. originally we though it'd be cool to dress up like a lion tamer and a lion. we then realized this would be a bit and having someone spend the evening in a lion costume would be a little tiring. marshall said we didn't have to dress up at all, but what's the fun in that? we're going to try and stop by the costume store tonight and see what inspires us. even though i HATE clowns (totally scared of them), we could dress up like them. i'm a fan of the "hobo"-type clowns, with baggy plaid pants with suspenders and red rubber noses. i'm okay with them. but we'll see what they've got at the store.
+_+_+
i needed to stop for gas this morning on my way to work. i go to the same 76 gas station because it's on the right side of the street and it's no hassle at all. sure i end up paying slightly more, but i save time. i turned into the driveway and saw a chain-link fence around the whole place. i guess they're in the midst of having the pumping machines and/or tanks upgraded, but seriously, i didn't realize it until i was right up on the fences. so, i go around them and nearly ran into some guy going out the other driveway. i seriously didn't see him and i was so frustrated with having to go to the gas station across the street. i stopped and he gave me the italian chin-snub and hand-shake and yelled at me. i made the gesture that he could go right ahead, but he stayed put. apparently he was waiting for me to apologize. fine, i'll apologize NOW you can go! i went to go around the back way to get out and found that area was blocked off too! *sigh* i had to back-out and wind my way to where i came in. so annoying... it's a damn good thing all 3 gas stations on that corner have the same price. it just didn't make a good morning for me.
things have looked up, as i have stuff to do and it's helped my morning have purpose. especially after yesterday when i spent my ENTIRE afternoon watching the office via netflix...
gazpacho
32 oz of tomato juice (depending on the size of the bottle, you could use the whole thing and just increase everything else slightly)
1 small red onion, minced
2 C fresh tomatoes, finely diced (as finely as you can)
1 C bell pepper, finely diced (any color works, i used yellow for this one)
1 cucumber, diced
2 scallions, finely sliced (i use the WHOLE scallion)
1 clove of garlic, chopped (i ended up using 3, whatever you like - i like a lot of garlic)
~1/4C fresh basil, loosely chopped (i used the chiffonade method)
~1/4C fresh italian parsley, chopped
2 T red wine vinegar
dash of ground cumin
dash of tabasco sauce (or any other hot sauce and however much you want - it's to taste)
salt and pepper to taste
combine all the ingredients and chill for at least 2 hours before serving. i chilled mine overnight and it was delicious.
verygwen asked a few days ago what were good ways to enjoy fresh tomatoes. this is a GREAT way to use fresh tomatoes. i used heirlooms from the farmers' market. so yummy!
i served this with grilled cheese sandwiches made with sprouted wheat bread and 2-yr-old tillamook cheddar. it was a play on the favorite: tomato soup and grilled cheese. it was a great combo here - cool and crisp gazpacho with warm and creamy grilled cheese.
+_+_+
i've got another freakin' 10:10pm softball game tonight. so annoying...
+_+_+
marshall's company is holding their annual summer company party this friday. the theme is "the big top" and it's up to individuals if you want to dress up with the theme. last year was "summer of luck" and they rented casino tables and the overall theme was rat-pack vegas. marshall wore a suit with a black skinny tie, carried a toy tommy gun and had a cigar hanging out the side of his mouth. i wore a red cocktail dress with a red feather boa and carried a long cigarette holder in one hand.
(marshall's standing behind me)
it was a really fun night and they had some GREAT raffle prizes. we're up against the choice of whether or not we want to dress up this year. originally we though it'd be cool to dress up like a lion tamer and a lion. we then realized this would be a bit and having someone spend the evening in a lion costume would be a little tiring. marshall said we didn't have to dress up at all, but what's the fun in that? we're going to try and stop by the costume store tonight and see what inspires us. even though i HATE clowns (totally scared of them), we could dress up like them. i'm a fan of the "hobo"-type clowns, with baggy plaid pants with suspenders and red rubber noses. i'm okay with them. but we'll see what they've got at the store.
+_+_+
i needed to stop for gas this morning on my way to work. i go to the same 76 gas station because it's on the right side of the street and it's no hassle at all. sure i end up paying slightly more, but i save time. i turned into the driveway and saw a chain-link fence around the whole place. i guess they're in the midst of having the pumping machines and/or tanks upgraded, but seriously, i didn't realize it until i was right up on the fences. so, i go around them and nearly ran into some guy going out the other driveway. i seriously didn't see him and i was so frustrated with having to go to the gas station across the street. i stopped and he gave me the italian chin-snub and hand-shake and yelled at me. i made the gesture that he could go right ahead, but he stayed put. apparently he was waiting for me to apologize. fine, i'll apologize NOW you can go! i went to go around the back way to get out and found that area was blocked off too! *sigh* i had to back-out and wind my way to where i came in. so annoying... it's a damn good thing all 3 gas stations on that corner have the same price. it just didn't make a good morning for me.
things have looked up, as i have stuff to do and it's helped my morning have purpose. especially after yesterday when i spent my ENTIRE afternoon watching the office via netflix...