My mother's Gazpacho

If I talk to my father at the beginning of the weekend, he will inevitably remind me to go to Mass on Sunday. I always tell him I'll try, but the truth is I have my own religious-like activities on Sunday mornings to attend to. My Sunday is started with a free yoga class followed by my weekly trip to the farmer's market, and cooking later in the afternoon. After my two morning activities, I feel renewed and ready to start the week with a fresh mind and body and fresh produce.

On top of all the other delicious food at the market, there are also fresh crabs! Blue Crabs from Maryland (I hope...) are only a dollar a piece. The copious amount of old bay spice comes for free. This Sunday I bought 8 crabs for Sam and I to split and eat with gazpacho. I'm proud to say that my crab cracking skills have improved since last year, enough that I might buy crabs again this weekend. We had a wonderful Sunday meal, the kind of meal that makes Sunday special and reminds you how lucky you are to be eating crab in Washington, DC with a few worries but a bright future ahead...What can I say, the crabs, the bread, the wine, avocados, and the gazpacho made me sentimental!

My father, besides being a devoted Catholic, is also a voracious eater of gazpacho. My mother buys boxes of tomato seconds and makes about a gallon of this cold soup a week. Her gazpacho is a masterpiece; mine is still being perfected. However, here is her recipe, a bare bones recipe, and it's up to the chef to make it memorable.

Grace's (my mother's) gazpacho
4 or 5 large tomatoes, cored and blanched
1 cucumber, peeled and sliced
1 green bell pepper, washed, de-seeded, and sliced
2 cloves garlic, sliced
1/4-1/2 cup olive oil
a few splashes of red wine vinegar
salt, pepper
a small hunk of white bread, soaked in water for a few minutes

1. To blanch the tomatoes, bring a big pot of water to boil. When it boils, add the tomatoes and leave them submerged for 3-4 minutes. Don't leave them in much longer or they will start to cook and you'll be making tomato sauce.
2. Remove the tomatoes and place them into a big bowl of cold water. The skins should slide of easily. Remove the skins and place the tomatoes into the blender.
3. Add the cucumber, pepper, garlic, and olive oil into the blender and puree the mixture.
4. Blend until smooth, then add the bread soaked in water and blend again until smooth.
5. Add the red wine vinegar, salt and pepper to taste.
6. Blend until the mixture is very smooth. Decant into a bowl and let the gazpacho cool for at least an hour so the flavors can meld and it can be eaten cold.

Optional: You can chop up boiled eggs and prosciutto or ham, and croutons to serve on top of the cold soup, or you can just eat it with bread, or you can do both...