Hot! Hot! Hot!

You know how I said it never gets hot here? Well, as these things have a tendency of happening, I was proved a liar and we were struck by seriously hot weather. In fact, this past Friday I called my husband in a panic. "It's an emergency. WeatherBug says it's 95 degrees at DeAnza and I can't find the fan."

Translated that means that the Web Site, Weatherbug, which give live temperature reading from all kinds of places around the country that aren't covered by the National Weather Service. DeAnza is a local Junior High School about four blocks from our house, which is important here because there are so many microclimates here in Ventura and we live in a very specific and Unusual one. Many schools have weather stations that track the temperatures because they work together with WeatherBug to make weather interesting to students.

After I called Rob, I went for a swim in our pool. It's really turning out to be quite handy this year. Rob came home and he had bought about every fan they had at Wal-Mart. Not exactly, but he DID buy four fans: two small desk models; one larger desk model and one fan on a pedestal with a remote control (God forbid we should have to get off our lazy butts and turn the fan off.)


I also had no intention of doing any serious cooking. So I decided to make BLTs along with gazpacho for dinner. These are two of my all-time favorite summertime favorites. Rob and I both love BLTs, they're just so light and just the right mixture of salty and crunchy and tomato-y sweetness. And I add basil leaves to mine to give it that little extra something.

I was introduced to gazpacho when I was a girl by my grandmother. She would whip up a batch and we would have it for lunch. My grandmother was always on a diet and we would eat very sparsely during the day when I would come for my summer visits. At the time I was thin as a rail and I would just be starving. I used to raid their pantry every night looking for food. I still love to eat. But the thin as a rail thing? Not so much.

True gazpacho calls for bread, but this is more of a puree of vegetables that's served cold with a healthy dollop of sour cream. And I can call it gazpacho if I want to. So I do.

Gazpacho for a hot day

4 roma tomatoes, coarsely chopped, with seeds and liquid strained
1/2 bell pepper (I used a yellow one)
1 cored cucumber, coarsely chopped
1 cup V8 vegetable juice
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon red wine vinegar

Blend together using a hand blender, as I did (I just LOVE those things) or a regular blender. You can add basil for a nice touch or any other herb(dill would be good) if you like. Serve cold with a dollop of sour cream.

For BLTs, I always use whole grain toasted bread -- in fact I eat whole grains as much as possible. I use thick sliced bacon that I cook in a George Foreman grill. A local radio personality tipped me to this and it makes great bacon that comes out pressed straight and perfect for sandwiches. Slice the tomatoes, add fresh basil leaves, romaine lettuce and some mayonnaise and welcome to a little slice to summer time.

OTHER NOTES:

My youngest daughter Lindsay graduated from the University of California at Santa Barbara today with a degree in political science. She's been working on her degree for seven years, but she has taken some time off and she managed to backpack across Europe one summer. She also worked as a manager at Aaron Brothers framing and at other stores.

Her dad and his wife came into town with their son and Lindsay's aunt came to visit. It was really kind of nice to see my little girl get her college degree. And there is no small amount of pride at having both of my girls have college degrees. It took me a while and a lot of angst before I got mine, which proved to be a lot easier than I thought it would. We went up to UCSB for the morning graduation, along with a friend of ours, who knew an interen who was graduating. It was drizzling and crowded but still nice set by the lagoon, which is right nect to the Pacific Ocan.

Parenthood has some really ugly moments, or at least that's been my experience. It's great to be able to savor the victories.