Chilled Soups - Take One!

a

Chilled soups... are they SO 2005? I think not. Gazpacho has been popular for decades in the restaurant scene, but I'd like to think that different varieties of chilled soups have gained its fame only in the recent few years. Once a dish becomes popular in restaurants, it's only a matter of minutes till it becomes popular in home kitchens.

So here was my shot at a chilled soup made with honey dew melon, cucumber & mint!

I simply blended all of those ingredients w/ a dash of salt but I'm pretty sure some kind of stock and or thickening agent (yogurt?) would have gave it more "umph."

Garnished with super crispy bacon, I liked it a lot! However I wouldn't serve this at any traditional dinners since most of my guests were more amused by the concept than swoon over by the taste.

Celebrating America's Birthday

as

Happy (belated) Fourth of July! (Above: gorgeous sunset from my patio...)

Since everyone's holidays are hospitality professionals work days, I celebrated July 4th a day late. We served barbecue on the function that I worked on the actual 4th, so I definitely needed to create my own!

I picked up two racks of pork baby back ribs and chose two recipes for the dry rub & the babecue sauce from none other than Ms. Paula Deen. For the dry rub, I added everything on the recipe list I also added few dashes of: celery salt, garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne pepper powder, ginger root, and Chinese five spice (thanks Jess --my roommate-- for the awesome selection of spices from Sprouts!)

With some nice rub down, the ribs were ready to go in to the 350 degree oven to start baking.

After 2 hours, they were starting to form nice crusts... and they also had my apartment smelling like a smoky barbecue joint!

The barbecue sauce required some bourbon, which we saved some for cocktails later!

Corn on the cob was in the oven alongside the ribs then tossed in parsley butter...

And the beans were out of the can added with some crispy bacon!

Roasted cauliflower & brussel sprouts for the veggie aspect.

That is fall-off-the-bone goodness!

To wash this big dinner down we threw down some gin + ginger ale cocktails with my berry tarts served with butter pecan ice cream (the tarts are the same recipe as this, just with berries).

Boy was I sleepy after this meal...

I would have loved to spend the holiday with my family and friends back in Midwest, but I had my furry baby so it was aaaall good. I mean, there will always be a coulda, shoulda, woulda, but I'd rather take what I have right at this moment and be thankful! It's the little things that keep a smile on this girl's face! Speaking of smilin'... guess what this oddly pretty picture is!

My barbecue pan soaking in soap water. Ha!