Tuesday, July 31, 2012

7/23/12 - The Day Before Vacation

Things really came together in a good way. I'd been really wanting to see "The Dark Knight Rises" and to make peach gazpacho. When Helene messaged me to see if I wanted to see a movie and have a picnic in Barnsdall Park, all of a sudden I had a perfect opportunity to do both. It was kind of last minute, so I had to throw it together in a hurry, but I finally had some good ripe peaches, so I had a good feeling it would come out well. I looked at a few recipes for inspiration, but I definitely did my own thing. I would say I most closely followed this recipe,  http://expatriateskitchen.blogspot.com/2012/06/peach-gazpacho-and-ginger-peach-sorbet.html although it's hardly recognizable. I took a few peaches and blanched them to get the skins off.



Then I blended them with a couple of incredibly ripe heirloom tomatoes and a peeled cucumber. I added some raw garlic and onion, but I used very little since those things can be a bit powerful. I had so many jalapenos left over, I went ahead and threw one of them in. I also used a little bit of the dried ~nora pepper I got at La Espanola. The recipe called for balsamic vinegar. In the future, I think I'll use white balsamic, just because the dark stuff really affects the color in a not-so-nice way. After adding a left-over roasted red pepper and some ground almonds, I decided it was done. I garnished it with some avocado, and plated it up nice in a tupperware container to go.



Best picnic ever!


I brought some of the flax crackers I made recently, and Helene brought a tasty tuna salad and some cervezas. It was a perfect hot weather meal.

And the view wasn't bad either!

Then we had to skeedaddle to the theater so we didn't miss the screening. The Vista's cheap matinees tend to draw a crowd, even on a Monday.


I can't believe Batman was really there!

I really liked the movie a lot. I thought they did some interesting things, using the current economic climate and fear of terrorism to make the film feel timely. There was definitely some allusion to the Occupy movement that I suppose wasn't all that favorable, but then I feel like the Occupy movement's primary achievement was just shining a light on the fact that lots of people feel disenfranchised.

After the movie we went back to the park for a bit, chatted some more, and ate some more food :)

Eventually I had to go home and do some laundry. Oh right, that whole "I'm flying to another state tomorrow" thing. I'm proud to say I was pretty disciplined about it, and got most of my stuff done, so when Wes texted to say he and Julie were at The Brass Monkey, I felt more than okay about joining them.

I stayed up way later than I should have, but it was totally worth it. Rickett and I brought the house down with a duet of "Runnin' Down a Dream" by Tom Petty. It's really a damn shame there's no video of that...or maybe it's not.












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