Gazpacho

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Lets talk about lousy costumer service, shall we?  *Sigh* Sooooo… today I was going all over looking for a place that would print some things I designed for my site, and it was pretty, pretty lame. ‘Kinko’s’, now called ‘FedEx’, almost shooed me out. Actually they did shoo me to their competition across the street. Clearly this company is making loads of money that they can send people to print in another place across the street. It started with a phone call… I called and ask if they could print my stuff for the next day. They said yes but it would depend on the type of paper I needed. So after I explained myself and all… he begrudgingly said okay, then I asked his name and he told me “ My name is…anybody can do it for you when you get here” (Such a pretty name right?) But the truth is his name should be “I’m too lazy to be bothered and I don’t give a crap”. So I got there with my project and Man…he was even worse in person, *double sigh* after a few questions he told me they couldn’t do it. And then he told me to go across the street to a neighborhood print shop. And guess what? They were fantastic, they had paper, they had a sweet heart designer to help me setting up my documents and she was extremely knowledgeable and useful. So there you go, I have to thank mister “ anybody can do it for you when you get here”. Because  big trade names just lost my attention. From now on I will always look for the small personable more useful places. By the way… the name of the place is Printland at Wilshire Boulevard, Santa Monica. Anyway…. after all that I came home and looked into my fridge, I had tomatoes, cucumbers…. and loads of herbs from my little garden. So instead of just a salad I decided to make Gazpacho. Do you like /do Gazpachos?

Gaspacho

• 2 tomatoes
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 Serrano Chili
• 1 cucumber
• 1 red onion
• Kosher salt
• Freshly grounded black pepper
• ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1pint mixed cherry tomatoes
• ¼ cup fresh flat parsley leaves
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

Dice the 2 red tomatoes, cut the bell pepper and the chili, roughly chop ¾ of the cucumber and cut the remaining piece in small dices set a side for garnish. Pell the red onion and cut in small dice set half a side for garnish. In a blender combine the chopped tomatoes, bell pepper, chili, cucumber, onion. Blend on low speed until the vegetables begin to turn into a puree. Turn off and scrape down the sides of the blender, Turn the speed to high and slow pour the olive oil, blend until very smooth. Pour through a mesh strainer into a large bowl. Stir the reserved diced cucumber and onion along with the cherry tomatoes, parsley and the red wine vinegar. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Refrigerate the soup for at least 8 hours or overnight. To serve, drizzle with olive oil. Enjoy.