Labor Day Weekend in Michigan

Lynne and I spent Friday night through Monday afternoon with her dad and Marilyn in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It was a very relaxing long weekend of loafing, hanging out, cooking, eating, playing croquet, eating some more, and watching some football and movies (nice game UofM, maybe Purdue can actually beat you this year). Otis enjoyed trying to play with Wesley, but overall, he behaved very well and got a great deal of loving from his grandma and grandpa.




One of the highlights was a great meal we cooked on Sunday night. The meal consisted of somked jamaican chicken using an electric smoker, corn on the cob, gazpacho, prosciutto wrapped melon, and chocolate brownies with rubarb compote. Below are some pictures and the recipe for the amazing gazpacho. I'm not a big tomato fan, but this soup was out of bounds (to use a Guy-ism).



Gazpacho with herbs and chiles:

Mix the following ingredients in a large bowl. Cover and chill until cold, at least 2 hours, and we recommend making it at least one day ahead of time to let the flavors marry.

4 cups tomato juice
1 red onion, finely chopped
1 cucumber, halved, peeled, seeded, and finely chopped
1 red bell pepper, finely chopped
1 yellow bell pepper, finely chopped (you see a trend here? to chop all of these, feel free to use a food processor)
2 tomatoes, seeded, finely chopped
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1 1/2 tablespoons chopped and seeded jalapenos
1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil
1 tablesppon chopped fresh cilantro
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
1 garlic clove, minced
3/4 teaspoon hot pepper sauce
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper