Turkey Tracks: August 25, 2016
Jane’s Gazpacho
Yesterday Jane Liebler made a beautiful day for those Coastal Quilters who could break away for the day to visit her out in Liberty, Maine–which is about 25 minutes from Camden and a beautiful ride that traces the headwaters of the St. George river.
Jane’s farmhouse sits in the midst of blueberry barron-covered hills that rise above the gorgeous, blue St. George’s Lake. And, John’s Ice Cream (all homemade) is just two miles away.
Jane greeted us with warm doughnuts, hot coffee with REAL cream and good honey, and anything else we wanted to drink. The farm kitchen was warmed with wonderful wood walls. A collection of baskets hung from the rafters. This house is loved! Jane also had a cantaloupe all cut up for us, which we devoured on the spot. She made a scrumptious summer lunch for us, which included deviled eggs (yeah!!) and GAZPACHO I COULD EAT. Most people add some form of red pepper to gazpacho, which would send me straight to the kitchen floor and on to the hospital. We sat and did handwork, ate, laughed, visited, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Thanks Jane!! Don’t ask us back unless you really want us because WE WILL COME.
I broke away after lunch to drive about 20 minutes further west to Freedom, Maine, and Villageside Farm, where I picked up six frozen, hefty, free-range, non-Cornish chickens. And after I returned and gathered up my passengers, we went to John’s Ice Cream for…John’s homemade ice cream. It’s famous! I had vanilla custard and rocky road, and it was so, so good.
I asked Jane how she made her delicious gazpacho, and she said scald the fresh tomatoes and skin them, then work the flesh with your hands to break it up, rather than putting everything into a blender. Use lots of spring onions and some balsamic vinegar. She added cucumber and green pepper. Simple and as delicious as the summer-ripe ingredients.
So…I have a lot of tomatoes from the Hope’s Edge CSA pick-up this week. I prepped the tomatoes as Jane directed, reserving some of the flesh to give the soup a chunky texture. I also reserved some of the diced cukes and green pepper–as Jane did. The rest I put into the Vitamix with spring onions (4 large spring onions to 1 large tomato, 1 medium tomato, 1 large cuke and 1 smaller one, and 1 green pepper). I added about 1/4 cup of good olive oil and 2 or 3 dollaps of white balsamic vinegar, rather a lot of salt (2 teaspoons plus–tomatoes love salt), and some fresh ground black pepper. I didn’t puree the mixture, just got it cut up into small pieces and poured it back into the bowl with the reserved tomato flesh.
When I tasted it, the white balsamic and the sweet ripe tomatoes made the mixture really sweet. I added more black pepper and some red wine vinegar. Yummy.
Gazpacho needs to age a bit I think. It’s upstairs cooling its heels in the refrigerator. I’m planning on having some of it–a lot of it–for supper since I fixed a big BLT sandwich about 2 p.m. and am not hungry. I’ll have some goat cheese and avocado on corn chips (sprouted organic, GMO-free corn) to go with and call it a night.
Maybe I am getting hungry a bit…
It has been a lovely day–even though No No Penny threw up on the bedspread and afghan this morning. She was left alone for some hours yesterday, and I do not think she is used to being alone for multiple hours yet. I gave myself some time to sit on my porch and read this morning–accompanied by a bowl of fresh strawberries and blueberries with some yogurt and a piece of gluten-free toast with peanut butter. It was so peaceful and lovely out there.
A storm is moving in, but humidity is really good. All day the wind has been up, so when I went by the coast on an errand, I could see that sailing on the bay today would have been amazing. I can’t wait to go back on the Riggin again Sept. 20th. AND, two passenger additions include Rose Lowell and Megan Bruns. Mary Bishop will room with me. We are going to have such a good, good time. Rhea Butler of Alewives Quilt Shop will be on board to teach English Paper Piecing to whomever wants to learn.
When I walked by my garden at some point, I could see bits of orange in the Sun Gold cherry tomatoes. Time to pick again. For some reason I checked the beans, and my goodness, I have to pick those too. I had a terrible time getting the beans to germinate and outgrow the slugs–who seem to be gone now???–so I have one Romano bean plant, one bush provider, and about a half-dozen haricot verte bush “filet” beans.
Here’s what came in the house today:
I am drying a flat of cherry tomatoes in the kitchen, so I’ll let these guys ripen in the kitchen and eat the ripe ones. Rain causes these cherry tomatoes to split open–from the extra water the plant takes up I guess.
Now I’m going to sew for a bit.
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