Editorial
Front Page - Friday, September 3, 2010
Kay's Cooking Corner
Kay Bona
Fresh summer vegetables – there is nothing better! Going to a Farmers’ Market can make you feel so healthy. You know, the chest-slappin’, Tarzan-yellin’ kind of healthy!
For example, go to a grocery store and walk through the aisles of fresh fruits and vegetables. Feels good, looks pleasing. Everything is stacked nice and neat, and has that just washed look from occasional showers of pumped-in water.
Next go to a Farmers Market, and walk down the rows and rows of fresh fruits and vegetables, during which time you inhale fresh, outdoor air, and instead of hearing piped-in music, the noise of vendors and buyers chatting and laughing, and truly enjoying themselves fills your ears.
The colorful fruits and vegetables are stacked up in rows on long tables, or some piled high in baskets. You visit with the farmers that have proudly and diligently grown each item, and tenderly packed it up and carted it to town for sale at the market. Even the hand-made signs of the prices are “homier” than the computer generated ones at the stores. It’s an adventure in real time.
Farmers Markets are definitely worthy of the visit and we are so fortunate to have such a nice one right down there on the river.
Amy, our Denver-ite daughter, called last night about 9:30 and was in the middle of making Gazpacho Soup and a grilled pork chops for dinner. (Denver runs an hour behind us, and Amy runs on “young person” time – so even though that sounded like a late dinner to us, it was her normal dinnertime hour.)
As she was talking to me, she was tasting her soup, and her ums and ahs really kicked my food sensors in to late night over-drive. Here I was ready to go to bed! It was pure torture, to say the least. Everyone knows that you are not supposed to eat right before or after you go to bed, but I had eaten during the “old peoples” dinner hour (around six), so at nine-thirty, my hunger pangs were alive and kicking. I finally had to get up and dish out a small bowl of vanilla ice cream!
I went to sleep with dreams of fresh vegetables and dinner for the next evening, and before I got off the phone, absconded Amy’s recipe for Gazpacho Soup, which she said is really her mom’s recipe. I don’t know whom to thank – maybe both of you!
Amy topped her soup off with a dollop of sour cream and croutons. I happen to love Crème Fraiche, so I have also included a recipe for it.
If you have never given Gazpacho Soup a try, maybe now is the time. It is a cold soup, which turns some people off, but if you think about it, it is no different than eating a cold salad along with your dinner. Amy’s recipe calls for some of the vegetables to remain unblended, so it is chunky. I think it makes it more like a salad that way.
Amy’s Gazpacho
2 tomatoes
1/2 green pepper
1/2 cucumber
1/2 cup celery
1/4 cup green onions
12 ounces V8 Juice
2 Tablespoon olive oil
2 1/2 Tablespoons red
wine vinegar
1 Teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 Avocado
Sour Cream
Croutons
Chop up first six ingredients into large bowl. Add juice, olive oil, vinegar and salt and pepper. Mix well. Place about one-third of mixture in food processor and process until smooth and creamy. Add to bowl of vegetables. Stir in chopped avocado. Spoon into bowls and garnish with dollop of Crème Frachie or Sour Cream, and croutons.
Crème Frachie
1 cup of whipping cream
2 Tablespoon of buttermilk
Combine ingredients in a glass container. Cover and let stand at room temperature 8-24 hours, or until very thick. Stir well, cover and refrigerate up to 10 days.
|
|