Hot Day? Cold Soup!

A few days ago I tried making my first soup out of The Plantpower Way cookbook. I made the cold heirloom tomato soup, since it was both incredibly simple to make and the temperature in Salt Lake has been soaring lately in the 90’s, so anything with “cold” in the title sounds automatically appealing. Ugh. The heat always gets me down, especially when I try to do fun things outside but then end up in a hot, sweaty mess within minutes. This cold soup, however, was just the right thing to finish off another roasting day in the valley: totally quick and totally refreshing!

If you’ve ever had gazpacho, this soup was basically a chunky version. I am hesitant to post the actual recipe here, since it came out of a brand new cookbook. However, the basic idea was to put about 6-7 heirloom tomatoes, celery, cucumber, fresh basil, and fresh mint into a blender/food processor and process until the soup became a lightly chunky gazpacho. So easy!! So if you ever need a simple, light, refreshing, quick dinner, skip the prepackaged stuff and blend up some veggies into a cold soup. You won’t be disappointed! (They also say it is great for your skin, so it’s worth a try).

In other news, I have started my summer job working with the Outdoor Program! Thus far we have been working with a lot of the summer camps that come to campus, mostly just being their belay slaves at the climbing wall. Luckily, I get to go outside tomorrow and take a bunch of young ladies out on a hike up in Big Cottonwood Canyon! Hopefully the mountains will provide a nice outdoor break from the indoor climbing wall, as well as a break from the sweltering heat down in the valley. Also, next week I get to go out on a day-long flyfishing trip! I have never been flyfishing in my entire life, so I really don’t even know how to “lead” a flyfishing trip at all, but it will be an adventurous experience either way. All in all, I can’t complain too much about my summer. If I’m not working (or is it actually playing for pay?) I get to go do fun stuff with Bridger and enjoy all that the SLC area has to offer. Here’s a concluding picture (or two) of Bridger and I on top of Mount Olympus last weekend. It was a hot and sweaty trudge straight uphill, but the view at the top was pretty neat.