Gazpacho

I just celebrated my 41st birthday and what did I get? A new foodprocessor, pizza peel and blender. Do we reach a point in our life when we ask for these things? Things to make our lives easier and forget about the roses? I was thrilled. I asked for these things. I like to cook (mostly) and try out new recipes (mostly). So it's all good.

Tonight is Diva's night-the first Friday of every month, all of the homeschool mom's in our group get together to socialize, eat, share a glass of wine, talk or do something fun.

Yesterday I made Gazpacho to serve to my divas! Soooo good with all of it's tomatoey and spicey kick. It's served cold with croutons and a dollop of sour cream. It's also a very economical meal. I have no idea how many this serves-I guess it depends on how many bowls you suck down. It makes a lot. But you'll need to make more because it goes really fast.

Gazpacho

2 garden fresh cucumbers

2 red bell peppers

1 red onion

4 very ripe tomatoes

1 small hot pepper

1 bottle of tomato juice or V8

2 tsp of salt

2 tsp crushed garlic

2 tsp pepper

1/2 cup olive oil

1/2 cup white vinegar

dash hot sauce

Start with 2 fresh garden cucumbers. Cukes are the only survivors in my garden this year.

Slice them in half lengthwise.

Scoop out the seeds with a spoon. Feed the seeds to the chickens if you have them. Leave the cucumber peels on-they are nutritious.

See? All scooped and cleaned.

Dice the cucumbers. Reserve a couple of tablespoons of cukes for garnish.

You also need 2 red peppers. Red, not green. Red helps the color of the soup stay really red because, well, who wants green soup?

Dice the red peppers. You can dice up the hot pepper if you want to and add that too. It just depends how spicy you want your gazpacho. Reserve a few tablespoons of peppers for garnish.

Cut the ends off a red onion. A red onion, because it's a red soup. And red onions are sweeter.

Dice up the whole red onion.

Put the red onion, peppers, and cucumbers into the processor.

You need four ripe garden tomatoes. Yes I know-there are two here. I used four.

Dice up the tomatoes and add them to the processor.

Always have a Dunkin Donuts Iced Coffee standing by. It helps me cook better. No, really.

I am addicted to iced coffee. I have a problem.

Blend all the vegetables until just chunky. Like salsa. Don't puree it. Then it's tomato vegetable soup and this is gazpacho which isn't soup. Transfer the veggie mixture into a huge bowl.

Next add the olive oil, vinegar, salt, pepper and garlic to the food processor. Give it a quick whirl. Add this mixture to the blended veggies.

Pour in a medium size bottle of tomato juice or V8. I have no idea how many ounces this is because I put the recycle out last night. It looks about 4 cups.

Now taste the whole thing and adjust your seasonings. Add a few dashes of hot sauce if you like.

Serve this delightfulness in a mug with the vegetable garnish on top. Add a few croutons and dollop of sour cream.

See? all blended in the bowl.

Gazpacho!