I had two goals this week when it came to cooking. One was to do as little of it as possible due to the temperature. The other was to use up some tasty grouper that I had made into Fish ‘N Chips the week before but that nobody had seemed to want to eat as leftovers for lunch. I combined my goals and put together a big batch of deliciously chilly gazpacho with a side of local fish fritters.

I must admit that I am rather proud of the fritters. They not only used up the grouper in a way that everyone seemed to enjoy, but they were also my very first attempt at deep frying and I was thrilled that nothing went wrong. In fact, deep frying was easier than the pan frying that I usually attempt. I didn’t burn myself once.

The gazpacho was made of all local vegetables. The tomatoes were from Cornerstone Garlic Farm, as was the garlic. The cucumbers and bell peppers were from Mindenhill Farms. The red onion was from a farm that I can’t remember the name of, but from whence all my breakfast topping blueberries came. The vinegar was local honey vinegar. The Tabasco, tomato juice, and red wine were not local. (Yes, I could have used a local red wine, but I had my heart set on a Spanish red wine.  However, the soup did go incredible well with Iron Gate’s sauvignon blanc.) The fish fritters were pretty local too. The grouper was caught off the NC coast by The Shrimp Man. The flour was from Old Guilford Mill. The eggs came from Ward’s Farm. The chives were from my little chive plant, which is wilting from heat in the back yard. I used half non-local olive oil and half Homeland Creamery butter. I also used Natty Green’s Guilford Golden Ale for the beer, but although it’s brewed here in Greensboro I’m sure that the ingredients are imported.

The dessert was not of my creation. At the farmers’ market Brynne and I found the very first apples of the year. They were tiny and crisp and absolutely wonderful for munching. I would have been happy to eat them all that way, but Brynne got a baking bug in her head (much like my peach pie problem, which I’m still working on by the way) and decided that an apple crumble was in order.

It looked and tasted great. Even better with a little Homeland Creamery vanilla ice cream on top. And kitty got over an hour’s worth of fun out of the paper bag the apples came in. By the by, isn’t our kitchen linoleum awesome?