The Gazpacho Incident

Tonight we had a Gazpacho mishap. The recipe calls for crumbs made from French bread. In my house, we only have old hamburger buns that were in the freezer.

Unfortunately, the frozen hamburger buns bread crumbs congealed into pieces of glop in the Gazpacho. Peter was really upset. He kept saying things like, "Why would you do that?" and "You ruined it."

Of course, whenever I ruin food, I now get this terrible food guilt. I didn't used to, because in my family, we're like, "Ruined food? That's okay, you could stand to lose a few pounds anyways."

But Peter is Italian, and in his household, the 11th Commandment is "Thou Shalt Not Throw Away Food. Ever." 

So, in order to remedy the situation, Peter decided to blend the Gazpacho to make it more one-texture-like, sort of like the Gazpacho at Harry's Burrito in Larchmont (and in NYC).

Now the Gazpacho looks like Lobster Bisque. The tomatoes and green peppers have turned the soup into a puke-like, seafoodish color. Totally gross. And now I can say that HE ruined it more.

Sloppy Joe's and Gazpacho

Tonight I made Sloppy Joes using the Fantastic Foods mix I bought at the local supermarket. I wanted to make hummus, but couldn't find any tahini at the local Stop & Shop.

When I asked one of the supermarket ladies where I could find tahini, she looked at me like I was crazy and said, "I've NEVER heard of that."

"Have you ever had hummus?" I asked.

She said, "Yup, all the time!"

"Well, tahini is what makes hummus taste so good."

Anyway... Last week I picked up Lost Recipes : Meals to Share with Friends and Family by Marion Cunningham. It was brand-new and only $3 at the library book sale. I tried out the Gazpacho and Peter really liked it. I looked through the other recipes, and they seem like they would be good, but almost every recipe that is not a salad starts out with a stick of butter. It seems like these recipes might have gotten lost because everyone who used to make these recipes died of heart disease.

There was one section of the book called: "Yesterday's Side Dish - Today's Vegetarian Centerpiece." I thought that was great, because I like to buy regular cookbooks that contain vegetarian meals, but you always have to hunt around for the vegetarian options. Here, it was all nicely compiled in one section.

HOWEVER - the second vegetarian recipe, Pilaf, calls for beef broth. Go figure.

I guess Marion Cunningham is just like my grandmother. Whenever Peter comes over the house, she always says stuff like, "I know Peter's vegetarian, but he'll have chicken soup if I pick out all the chicken, right?"

I Married a Vegetarian

Yes, I married a vegetarian. And now I keep a mostly vegetarian kitchen and have had to make friends with beans, vegetables, soy products, and something called TVP. In case you don't know what TVP is, you've probably had it in your beef tacos at Taco Bell. I mean, c'mon, how do you think they make they're tacos so cheap? By putting real meat in it?