apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Ironic you should use the word proud! Its Pride weekend here in Toronto which generally means barbeques, brunches, lots of beer and boys! (and girlz too!)
I'm planning a night in with Roman Holiday, a bottle of prosecco and a nice little pasta dinner (I'm flying solo tonight so I'm gonna keep it fun). Tomorrow I've got a wedding for two friends I've known for the past 17 years (and now that its legal for us to marry, I certainly need to be there!).
Sunday will be the day that I make a great brunch for my boyfriend and I, just a special little thing of crepes, an omelette or two, some nice coffee, bellinis and maybe even some gorgeous strawberries...

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Eric--sounds like a great weekend! Have fun.

Question for everyone: passionflower fruit (NOT passionfruit). The parking lot in my work is full of them, and there was an LA Times article way back about using them in desserts, but I can't find it. Anyone ever used them? Have any thoughts on what to make? You can see a pic here: http://www.paghat.com/images/maypop_aug.jpg

Thanks Erin! Should be a great time!

Random question: I once had a gazpacho that I loved at a restaurant in New York (my feeble mind can't remember which one, of course). It was completely smooth, save a garnish of jewel-sized vegetables (the basic gazpacho ingredients). The soup was a creamy orange color, but it had no cream in it, it was instead pureed with stale bread. Does anyone have a recipe? For some reason I've never been a huge fan of chunky gazpacho, but I could have eaten this smooth variety every day of the week.

I actually would love this kind of recipe myself. I don't care for chunky gazpacho at all, but a nice chilled, smooth version (with enough seasoning to keep from getting bland) sounds really nice.

marianne, that sounds delicious! i'll be sure to check back often in case anyone has a suggestion. i love the flavor but am not into the chunks as well.

i also wanted to post a quick note here about my new lunchbox. i'm in grad school right now and to both save money and try to remain healthy in my diet i have started bringing my lunch each day. i recently purchased a lunchbox from BUILT NY and LOVE IT! I line the bottom with some of those cryopak ice cube packages and it stays cool for hours and is super cute. for anyone else who brings lunch and may be looking for a lunchbox, i am so far really happy with this purchase.

I made a vegetable soup this winter that sounds very much like Marianne's gazpacho/stale bread idea above. Basically, it was cooked like a regular veggie soup--chunks of veggies, broth, spices, etc (but no cream or milk). Right before you were ready to eat, you pureed about half the soup with a few slices of either stale or lightly toasted bread (I used home-made sourdough. Yum!), and then blended the pureed mixture back into the soup. The end result was surprisingly creamy and a beautiful golden yellow color. I bet the same could be done for a basic gazpacho recipe. Maybe the whole batch (instead of half) could be pureed if you don't like any chunks?

I'm cat-sitting at my mom-in-law's this weekend, but will pull out the recipe when I get home tomorrow and see what kind of modifications could be made to it for a gazpacho recipe.

ask and ye shall receive:
I discovered this recipe while researching a new editorial feature i was working on for my blog.
This recipe calls for pureeing only part of the ingredients, but, i would go right ahead and puree all of them. To get a truly silky texture, run the resulting puree through a food mill or a chinoise. This recipe is from an out of print book called "Food In Vogue" which is a really great book... i'd highly recommend picking it up if you see it.

Andalusian Gazpacho (from Marion W. Flexner, 1946)
1 clove garlic
1 tsp salt
1 c soft bread crumbs
1/4 c wine vinegar
4 tomatoes, peeled
2 medium cucumbers, pared, split and seed removed (reserve cores and peels)
2 medium green peppers
1/2 olive oil
4 c very cold water
salt & pepper to taste

Pound the garlic and salt in a mortar; add the bread crumbs moistened with vinegar and work into a paste. Add two thirds of the tomatoes and mash; add the cores of the cucmbers and two or three strips of the peel. Puree in a blender. Place the puree in a bowl and miz with the rest of the tomatoes, diced; the flesh of the cucumbers, diced; and the green peppers, diced. Chill in the refrigerator. Before serving, stir in the olive oil and water, add salt and extra vinegar if the tatste is too bland. In Spain gazpacho is often served in a tureen with croutons.

this reminds me: does anyone know of other chilled veggie soups that are not gazpacho? for some reason, gazpacho just tastes like pureed salsa to me--yummy, but not something i like to eat by the spoonful.

but i was thinking there must be a recipe out there for cold cucumber soup, maybe with yogurt? or a spicy corn and tomato soup?

oh heck, i just might have to set up my own test kitchen.

Try Vichyssoise, minted pea, cold fruit soups are very cool! I'd just do a google or epicurious search for any of the above and you're sure to have great results!

On the menu for later this week: Curried Chilled Zucchini Soup

Chop and cook 2 lbs zucchini (keep a few thin round slices for garnish), 1 cup minced scallions, 3/4 stick of butter in a skillet on medium heat for 15 minutes.

Then add 1 Tblsp curry powder and 1 Tblsp cumin, and cook, stirring, for 2 min.

Stir in 1 cup chicken broth and blend in a blender. Stir in 1 quart buttermilk.

Chill.

When serving, add garnish of sliced carrot, or a few thin slices of zucchini or radish, and a dollup of sour cream.

Cool soups

1) Roast Bell peppers and garlic. Puree them. Add salt to taste. You can have them at room temperature

2) Roast tomatoes, garlic, cumin. Puree them. Add cold yogurt to the mixture and roasted onions.
it is a pleasure on a hot day.

3) Add dill to very cold yogurt. Add grated cucumbers and boiled chickpeas to the mixture.

Enjoy!

mm, that zucchini soup sounds like it would totally hit the spot for me. i'm also trying to be more inventive with pasta/grain salads. any favorites?

Ann, thank you so much! This is on my list for next week.

Liz, I have a cold cucumber/dill soup recipe around here somewhere--it tastes a bit like raita and is very refreshing. I also love roasted red pepper soup, chilled, with grilled shrimp in it. Sounds weird, but it's quite good.

I was stuck on my ice cream thing from last week - orange and honey without curdling - and I think I figured it out! I was rather happy about this. I ended up adapting an orange caramel recipe to include honey, and then made it into ice cream following my usual formula for caramel ice cream. It came out very, very rich, like gelato, with a strong flavor of orange and caramelized honey. It was time consuming, but worth it.

hey guido, if you're out there - I'm in tamal heaven - finally got my hands on some tamales (a Mexican co-worker ordered a bunch from a friend). This was the selection:
corn leaf wrapped:
red - with tomatoes, chiles & chicken
green- with tomatillos, cilantro and chicken
brown- with mole and chicken
And tamales oaxaquenos (banana leaf wrapped) with chicken or pork.
--for This week anyway, I don't have to feel envious of you guys that have easy access to tamales!:)