Hay there.  Regarding the kitchen, I don’t follow recipes well.  I’d say I “always” alter them, but my ex-husband always said to me, “Never say always, because there will always be an exception.”  (This lecture wasn’t regarding my cooking skills, but lesson learned!). I do always follow baking recipes.  (To my thinking, baking is science, cooking is art, and I’m no scientist.) Wait.  No, that’s not true.  I found a kick-ass recipe for sourdough bread, but I always double the salt and the rising time.  Most of the time, anyway.  Works like a charm! Usually.  Find it here:

http://thegoodheartedwoman.com/easy-sourdough-bread/

Anyhoo, I find that most cookbook recipes are “dumbed down” when it comes to herbs and spices – geared for that segment of the population who haven’t gotten over the loads of canned peas and boxed mac & cheese from their childhood and are too frightened to push their culinary boundaries.   This skepticism, I believe, I got from my father, affectionately remembered as “King Ricky.”  King Ricky was infamous amongst his friends and family for his consumption of decadent foods in large quantities: prime rib, leg of lamb, sweetbreads, shellfish, bacon, butter, butter, and I think I mentioned butter.   And, for those pesky bouts of gout…

King Ricky and I took a few cooking classes together long ago. I remember one where we were assigned to a table with some pleasant elderly ladies, and we were making some creamy saffron sauce thingy.  The instructor snobbily advised that we should only use a pinch of saffron.  “It’s wonderfully subtle!  The world’s most expensive spice!”  Anyhoo, we tried “just a pinch” with the ladies.  They oooed and awed over the delicate sauce.  King Ricky and I exchanged a look like, “What the good Jesus is this?!”  When the nice ladies turned to give the instructor their full attention, King Ricky dumped the rest of container of saffron in the sauce.  “Fixed it!”  I dunno.  I thought it was better. Blood runs thicker than bland cream sauce, they say.

My mom is a great cook.  Her husband always said she was fearless in the kitchen, subject only to a few disasters.  I think what I learned most from her, early on, was a sense of what goes well together:  what certain dishes deserve which herbs, spices, oils, etc.  A pinch of this, a sprinkle of that. What else can I add?  Voila! I’d share with you her secret spice addition to spaghetti sauce if I were certain she’d still speak to me.  It may have to wait until she passes on to the next world, but she’s looking pretty spry for 73.  It could take a while.  So, meanwhile,  I shake things up in my own way, often if not always, while exploring new recipes for inspiration.  Sometimes there is glory.  Sometimes there is sadness and shame.

My inspiration for tonight’s dinner was the goshdarnmuthascratchin” heat, and this here vegan recipe:

http://cravinggreens.com/2014/05/refreshing-avocado-cucumber-soup/?referrer=http://noshon.it/recipes/cold-cucumber-avocado-soup/

No one would ever mistake me for a vegan. Not that there’s anything wrong with that… I just lean towards a more paleo/ketogenic diet + Gin.  Here’s what I had in the garden:  Oodles of mint.  I tried to give the Fowl a snack of it, but they were skeptical.

A modest amount of basil.  Most of it goes into our martinis.  See my last post.

I also had a small amount of almost-bolted cilantro (refer back to the goshdarnmuthascratchin’ heat), and some lovely sweet, red onion.

Here’s what I had in the kitchen:  Bone broth from a rosemary-lemon roast chicken from Sunday night; homegrown garlic cloves that I pickled by not actually following this recipe:

http://foodpluswords.com/2011/08/french-pickled-garlic/

And, avocados, of course.

Here’s what I made, and I encourage you to alter it.  For me, it rocks as is, though my six-year-old gave me the scrunchy face and went for crackers, salami, and cheese.  Adult – Glory! Child – Scrunchy Face! Enjoy!

Chilled Avocado Soup with Fresh Garden Herbs:

2 1/2 cups homemade chicken bone broth, chilled & defatted (substitute chicken or vegetable broth)

3 chilled, ripe avocados, pitted

1/2 cup of fresh herbs – I used a mix of mint, basil, and cilantro

1 large unpeeled English cucumber, sliced

1 cup of sour cream (you could also use yogurt or omit entirely if you’re paleo)

1 small red onion, diced (rinse in cold water if you want to tone the onion-y down a bit)

4 cloves of pickled garlic (or 2 fresh cloves – pickling mellows the fire)

Juice of a lime

1 TBLS of Champagne or white wine vinegar, or better yet, the brine from your lovely pickled garlic!

Sea salt & Pepper to taste (depending on the saltiness of your broth)

Instructions: Put all in your food processor & whirl, whirl, whirl. Sip, sip, sip.  Chill…

I’d have taken a snap of the final product, but I ate it all.  ‘Til next time, xoxo DRS