Day 28-Spiked Gazpacho

We left after 11pm and drove for 6 hours stopping only for gas, on our way to Montreal. My friend, her room mate, and I, relied on the tunes blasting from her stereo and the red bulls we had drunk, to keep us going. There I was trapped with two psychology majors, one of them hopped up on caffeine, being psychoanalyzed while listening to a never ending succession of Pearl Jam. It was great fun. Needless to say we were all exhausted by the time we got there at 5:30 am. But it was completely worth missing the impending snow storm, and I gained a little introspective.

The purpose of this mad dash to Montreal, was for a Christmas party with my old high school friends. We try every year to get together, but it doesn't always work out, and we sometimes end up celebrating in March.

Keeping with the party theme, I decided to make a spiked gazpacho. The concept was good, but even with filling only a 1/4 of the shot glass with vodka and the rest with soup, it was overwhelmingly alcoholic. The biggest problem was that the alcohol rose to the top and just wasn't mixed properly. Plus, a lot of my friends are in different stages of their lives (popping out babies) and aren't into drinking anymore.

The next morning, I took an agonizingly long 14 hour train ride. We were stuck at the border for two hours and then stuck in Albany for two hours while they changed our engine. My seat mate and I were hungry so we broke open my giant Panettone (Italian cake) and my bottle of red wine. At least it made the time pass and it made a rather annoying situation more rosy.

Spiked Gazpacho Shooters
Source Moosewood Cookbook

4 cups of tomato juice
½ cup finely minced onion
1 medium clove garlic minced
1 medium bell pepper minced
1tsp honey optional
1 medium cucumber peeled seeded and minced
2 scallions minced
juice of ½ lemon and 1 lime
2 tbs wine vinegar
1 tsp basil
¼ tsp cumin
¼ cup freshly minced parsley
2-3 tbsp of olive oil
salt, pepper, cayenne to taste
2 cups of freshly diced tomatoes
Vodka (optional)

combine all ingredients and puree until desired consistency (chunky of smooth)
chill until very cold. To make it "spiked" fill 1/4 of shot glass with vodka, add soup and stir well, garnish with basil.