Food Friday- hot weather edition

As we live through these pandemic times there are days and weeks when I feel like I am just barely dragging myself through life.  Sometimes though just making an effort makes one feel better.  My husband and I made a big effort in cleaning the apartment today and organizing places that had gotten neglected.

As I made  Shabbat dinner tonight I decided to add some of the refinements to our meal. Our first course is gazpacho which is essentially a salad smoothie. Normally, I would just throw the whole tomatoes into the food processor. Today, I decided to peel the tomatoes before pureeing them. I may have been inspired by a long talk with my elegant friend S earlier in the week. We didn't discuss the relative merits of peeled vs. unpeeled tomatoes during our conversation, but she is the sort of cook that would go to the extra effort of peeling tomatoes.

It's actually a simple thing to do.

First, you mark a tiny X in the tomato skin with a knife to help the peeling along. Then, you pour boiling water over the tomatoes and let them sit in the hot water for a few minutes. Old cookbooks will then tell you to plunge the tomatoes into ice water. You don't have to be quite so dramatic but you can simply transfer the tomatoes into a bowl filled with cold water.

The skin pulls away from the tomato. It's as satisfying to pull off the skin as it was to pull sunburned skin when you were a child.

Here are my lovely peeled tomatoes.

 My peppers did not cooperate in the same way. I think that they would have been more amenable to peeling if they had been a bit more elderly.

We live in a culture where there are a plethora of single-use tools being sold to cooks.  I want to show you the best tool ever for getting rid of the white pith on bell peppers.

 

It is a tiny silver demi-tasse spoon that had belonged to my in-laws. I assume that someone gave this spoon to them. My parents also had a small collection of random tiny sterling silver spoons that were too nice to toss, but not exactly useful so they just sat in the silverware drawer.

The edge of these spoons is often just sharp enough to neatly trim away the pith without messing up the pepper or cutting your fingers.

This spoon and others if its ilk is perfect for all sorts of fruit and vegetable trimming jobs.

It made it easy to get rid of the less than lovely stuff under the tomato stem. You probably have such a spoon in the back of your silverware drawer. It may look useless, but it isn't.

I made a meatloaf. If my daughter were joining us at the table instead of virtually, I would have made meatballs instead.   (She has long been of the belief that meatballs are far superior to meatloaf.)

The meatloaf was flavored with

long-cooked mushrooms and onions.

Tonight's boiled red potatoes look bland but they are not.

They were boiled along with

a tea ball filled with cayenne pepper, whole coriander, and black pepper. They pack a punch.

Dessert will be some of this new batch of

candied citrus peel that is now in the oven, uncovered on low to further dehydrate it.

Lately, we have started Shabbat dinner with cocktails.  Last week in honor of Father's Day I bought gin and limoncello for my husband.

I guessed that they might make an excellent drink together. I asked the man at the liquor store if the thought they would work well together. He seemed skeptical. My husband checked Google and  a gin and limoncello cocktail it was the first cocktail was the very first cocktail that came up.  (one part of limoncello and one part gin, fill the glass with ice and seltzer and garnish with citrus peel). It was really good, a perfect summer drink.

I expect that we will usher in Shabbat tonight with candles, challah, kiddush, and a limoncello cocktail.

Shabbat Shalom