Gazpacho

This delicious cold soup was a perfect meal for this hot August day.  Grandmaman and Papa enjoyed the soup and "dinner on the deck".

1/2 red onion diced

 2 cloves garlic, minced

1 large cucumber, diced

5 roma tomatoes, diced

1 zucchini, diced

2 stalks celery, diced

1 dash salt to taste

3.8 liters tomato juice

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/8 cup red wine vinegar

2 tbsp. white sugar

6 dashes tabasco

1 dash black pepper to taste

In a food processor combine the minced garlic with half the red onion, half the cucumber, half the tomato, half the zucchini, half the celery, half the tomato juice, olive oil, red wine vinegar, sugar, tabasco and salt. Pulse until well blended.

Pour into a large bowl and add the rest of the tomato juice, and half of the remaining onion, cucumber, tomato, zucchini and celery.  The rest of the diced vegetables will be used for a garnish.

Stir the mixture together and check the seasonings, adding more salt if needed.  Chill the soup for at least a couple of hours.
Stir mixture together and check seasonings, adding salt if needed. Chill soup for at least a couple of hours; soup needs to be very cold!
Remove the soup from the fridge and stir. Check the seasonings one last time. Ladle into a bowl and garnish with remaining diced vegetables, a sliver of fresh avocado, sour cream, and cilantro. Finally, place a grilled shrimp on the top and serve with slices of bread grilled with olive oil.

These are the shrimp before we grilled them.  We grilled them for 2 minutes on one side, then turned them and grilled them for another 2 minutes.

Blackberry Pie

Pick the blackberries as they ripen (black).  

Grandmaman put foil in the oven.

 The recipe we tried took 4 cups of blackberries.

 Sadie and Logan took turns mixing the sugar and cornstarch mixture in.  We used 1/2 cup of sugar but this amount could be increased for a sweeter pie.

 Once the pie crust was in the pie plate and the berry mixture poured in Sadie arranged the top crust with care.

 After crimping the edges Sadie used a knife to cut steam holes in the pie.

 Next Sadie brushed on a bit of milk and sprinkled a generous amount of 

sugar on for a special finish.

The pie was baked at 400 degrees for 20 minutes then we turned the oven to 350 degrees for about 30 more minutes to finish baking.  We remembered to put foil on the rack below the pie to catch the juicy drippings.

We served the pie with vanilla ice cream.  Yummy.  We all decided that blackberry pie is super delicious but somewhat tart and might be nice mixed with other berries such as blueberries for a more subtle flavor.

4 cups fresh blackberries

1/2 cup white sugar (or a bit more)

1/2 cup flour (or 3 tbsp tapioca or 3 tbsp cornstarch)

2 tbsp. milk

1/4 cup of white sugar (or a bit less)

double piecrust

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Combine berries with sugar and flour.

Place berries into an unbaked pie shell.

Cover with the top pie crust.

Crimp edges and cut vents in to let steam escape.

Brush top with milk and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes 

then finish baking for about 20 to 30 minutes 

until the filling is bubbly and the crust is brown.

Cool on wire rack and serve with ice cream.