COOKING DAY, PART 7: Ernest Goes to ... I Mean, Yellow Tomato Gazpacho

By the power vested in me as a random person on the internet, I pronounce Cooking Day ’09 … FINISHED. Yes, I missed Obama’s health care speech. But I profoundly believe that after eating this many tomatoes, I won’t need health care anyway.

(KNOCK ON WOOD.)

Anyzwayz, the final dish was Suzanne Goin’s Yellow Tomato Gazpacho from Sunday Suppers at Lucques. (Is it pronounced “Goyne” or “Gwah”? I never know.) Though the end result is an unnerving yellow-green color, the flavor is mellow, smooth, and deep, and will probs get even more complex after a night in the fridge.

Like the previous soup, I doubled the recipe, and scored about 10 full cups out of it. It used nine tomatoes, leaving me with four lonely pieces of produce, which were mercilessly sliced and frozen. They will taste very good in January, provided I haven’t turned into a yellow tomato myself by then.

It is now a little past 11pm, and the dishes are done. The counters are wiped down. Everything’s frozen/packed/jammed into the fridge, which looks not unlike a clown car made of food. The first round of recipes will be up Friday, along with Lessons Learned From This Experience. (Like: If you should undertake this, remember to make time for the bathroom.)

Thanks, you guys, for all your comments and suggestions and ideas and tomatoes. You're the best.

Also, you should have seen my garbage bowl. It was epic.

39 tomatoes up, 39 tomatoes down.