Flavors 518

I'm off dogsitting in North Adams, MA again, and my husband was sweet enough to send me off with some tasty items from All Good Bakers . It is a loaf of sourdough and some cold cucumber soup. Now I am a huge cold soup fan. But this cucumber soup is something else. I think what makes it so unique is the possible presence of hot peppers. I would guess it also has black pepper, carrots (?), and scallions. This soup is amazing, like a mouthful of how it feels to walk into a cold movie theater from a sweltering, dusty asphalt parking lot. It is completely refreshing, and yet a bit unexpected with the scallions and peppers. The bread is great too. It is moist on the inside, with a fabulous crust, and a fully developed sourdough flavor. I liked their wheat loaf too. They are just so talented, and we are lucky to have them around in our community. As a side note, we went on vacation to the Finger Lakes a couple weeks ago. We drove through a lot of upstate NY towns, and had some good ...

We are crazy for cold soups right now. First off, gazpacho from the French Laundry Cookbook . Oh my goodness. It is about as fabulous as you would expect. So you just combine all the ingredients (tomato - mine were from the Berry Patch , bell pepper, cucumber, red onion, tomato paste, tomato juice, lemon juice, olive oil, cayenne pepper, vinegar, and garlic) in a large bowl. You let the ingredients sit overnight, and something about the lemon juice sitting with the tomatoes overnight makes them taste as if they have been cooked when they haven't been. Then you purée the ingredients and serve.  Then you purée the ingredients and serve. It is amazing and refreshing, and I even had some for breakfast this morning. The recipe said you could also use gazpacho as a sauce or squirt some on your plate next to a salad. Basically, the luxury in Keller's recipes comes a lot from straining and puréeing things really well. There's something about the smooth textures of his r...

 I've never been a big fan of summer. Last summer was pretty great , but some of my favorite things are fall things like tweed, tea, a roasting chicken, argyle, and acorn squash. I was really into swimming in the Great Lakes as a child, but at age 18, I developed a weird allergy to cold water and pretty much developed hobbies like reading and watching movies to accommodate that allergy. That all being said, here are some cool summer links: Desserts that look like summer foods . And also, how to make a watermelon cake . Fruit infused ice cubes that could be great for cocktails. Oatmeal you don't have to cook . (Wow.)  My plans for the summer include: I'd like to find a new hobby since I am finishing up watching the entire season of "Beverly Hills, 90210". Briefly, a few months ago , I thought my new hobby could be jello . But then the actual logistics of having that much jello around doesn't work that well. Can you call up your friend and say ...