Menu For a HOT Day

Every Tuesday night my son and his lady come over and have dinner with us. She and my daughter are avid foodies and I might add, are damn good at it, so they take turns each week working their mad skills in the kitchen. Ever since my oldest daughter decided she enjoyed cooking, I have pretty much given up my domain in the kitchen. I gotta tell you, I don't always like it, although cooking is NOT something I particularly enjoying doing (in other words: foodie I am not) . But when I do find a recipe that tickles my fancy I do enjoy it. So tonight, in this east coast hot and humid weather, I am trying out a gazpacho recipe that a super good friend sent me. We will have a pasta salad that my daughter made up, along side.

Avocado Gazpacho
Prep: 30 minutes
Cook: ZERO
Servings: ~8

Ingredients:
5 avocados, diced
2 cups cucumbers, diced
5 tomatoes, diced
1 medium leek, diced
2 cups vegetable stock
2 tablespoons lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup coarsely broken tortilla chips

Directions

1. Reserve 1/2 cup avocado for later use.

2. In a food processor, place half the remaining avocado, cucumbers, tomato, onion, broth, lemon juice, salt, and pepper; whirl until smooth.

3. Place in bowl and repeat with other half of ingredients.

4. To serve, spoon gazpacho into 4 bowls. In the center of each, spoon a small mound of the avocado and sprinkle with tortilla chip pieces.

Easy Summer Pasta Salad (Note: this is my daughter's recipe so measurements are not her forte)

1 lb rotini
1 pint grape tomatoes
basil to taste
olive oil drizzled on
spinach
salt to taste

Cook rotini until tender. Drain an rinse in cold water
Slice grape tomatoes in half add to pasta
Sprinkle basil, drizzle olive oil and salt to taste.
Serve in a bed of fresh spinach