Chilled Avocado Cucumber Soup

I've had this recipe for about one million years, and I both love and make it so much that the Southern husband gets that beef barley soup look in his eyes when I pull out the recipe, which is an interesting combo of "I like that soup!" and "wow, she's making that AGAIN." But I can't help it...this soup is cool and refreshing and delicious and only involves one kitchen appliance and that is the blender. Highly satisfying in so very many ways.

So here's the scoop. Pull out that blender and you toss in the following: some cucumber (get the English kind if you can. They are usually shrinkwrapped in plastic next to the cucumbers with the regular old American accent. Why? No idea. But they have less seeds and if you can get 'em, they're great.) Then some avocado, some yogurt, a little lime juice, some minced jalapeno, some salt and pepper and a little ice water. Press that puree button, baby.

And that puree sound is the MOST satisfying thing, can I just say? In about one minute it will be a lovely, thick chilled soup. Now all you have to do is thin it down with a little more ice water until it is nice and soup-like, and stir in some chopped avocado and cuke for substance and crunch. Garnish with some tomato, some fresh ground pepper and...the best part...some chopped crabmeat or shrimp. Dinner in about 10 minutes, and so delicious and healthy, too! Happy sigh.

Chilled Avocado Cucumber Soup, adapted from Everyday Food

• 1 English cucumber, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch cubes (about 2 cups)
• 2 avocados, pitted and peeled
• 1/2 cup low-fat plain yogurt
• 3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• 1 minced small jalapeno chile (seeds and ribs removed for less heat, if desired)
• 1/3 cup sliced scallions
• 1 tablespoon cilantr0 (optional)
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 6 ounces cooked shrimp or crabmeat
• 1 chopped tomato

1. In a blender, combine half the cucumber and 1 avocado with the yogurt, lime juice, jalapeno, scallions, 1 tablespoon cilantro, 1 cup ice water, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Puree until completely smooth. Transfer to a large bowl.

2. Cut remaining avocado into 1/4-inch cubes. Stir avocado and remaining cucumber into soup. Thin with 1/2 to 1 cup ice water, as desired. Season again with salt and pepper. Chill, about hour.

3. Ladle soup into bowls; garnish with shrimp or crabmeat and tomato.

Click here for printable recipe

Strawberry Sherbet

I am always too enthusiastic when it comes to buying fresh summer strawberries. They just look so dang good in the market, and I pile them into my cart with reckless abandon. But strawberries are fragile little things, and before I have been able to eat my way through the giant strawberry pile they start looking a little peaked. (I love that word, peaked. I just looked it up to make sure I had the definition absolutely correct, and it means "weak and wan." It reminds me of books like The Secret Garden.)

Anyway, this recipe is the answer to peaked strawberries. When they start to get a little weak and wan and sad and dried-looking, it's time to spring into action and make this absolutely mouthwatering silky smooth dessert, and all you need are the berries, a few other assorted ingredients, your food processor and your freezer. No need to haul out the ice cream maker.

Here's all you need to do. Cut the stems and any really suspicious looking areas off your sad strawberries. If you have any really big berries, cut them in half, and then put them all in a single layer on a cookie sheet, and freeze them solid. Once they are frozen, you drop them in the food processor with a little vanilla yogurt, some strawberry jam and a little bit of sugar. I like this brand of jam in the strawberry variety (although I have been known to fudge it if I have something in the red variety of jam that doesn't precisely fit the recipe.)

Press the button. About 60 seconds later, you will have this:

Creamy, sweet and delicious. Bring on those berries!

Strawberry Sherbet

• 1 pint ripe strawberries, tops cut off
• 1/2 cup vanilla yogurt, any variety
• 2 tablespoons strawberry jam
• 1 tablespoon sugar

1. Lay berries on a cookie sheet in a single layer. Freeze until solid.

2. Place berries and all remaining ingredients in food processor and process until smooth. You may have to stop the processor and scrape the sides a few times to make sure all the frozen berries are processed.

3. Serve at once. It is amazing with a little fresh grated lemon peel on top, if you have any handy.

Click here for printable recipe

One Bowl Chicken Souvlaki

I am a sucker for any recipe that has "one bowl" in the title. And this particular one comes from one of my favorite go-to cookbooks for those crazy weeknights when you come home and you pretty much have no time whatsover to get dinner on the table...or maybe you have the time but you would rather spend it elsewhere...and that is DINNER DOCTOR. The philosophy of this particular cookbook is that it is perfectly fine to use a few convenience foods in the preparation of your delicious home-cooked meal, thereby speeding whatever it is along just a little more quickly to the dinner table.

Ironically, this specific recipe actually doesn't include any convenience foods -- unless you count the fact that I sent the Southern husband out into the dead of winter to grill the chicken breasts, so that they were conveniently all nice and cooked when I was ready to make dinner. (My honey. Neither rain nor snow nor dead of night will keep the man from his grill.) Once you have some nice cooked chicken -- and I cannot lie, the grilled variety makes this dish just perfection -- you are about 10 short minutes away from suppertime.

So here's the drill. Take one bowl. Tear up your lovely grilled or otherwise cooked chicken into bite-sized piece. Into the bowl with it. Add in some chopped up cucumber, some chopped scallions, some capers, and some halved cherry tomatoes. Mix together some crumbled feta cheese and plain yogurt and toss in a little dried oregano and add this to the bowl. Mix it up good. Now divide it among the plates, top it with a grinding of fresh pepper and some chopped parsley, lay some pita bread on the plate...that's it. You're done. You're happy. And you still have the whole night in front of you!

ONE BOWL CHICKEN SOUVLAKI, adapted from Dinner Doctor

• 4 cups shredded cooked chicken
• 2 large cucumbers, chopped
• 2 scallions, chopped
• 2 tablespoons capers
• 1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt
• 1/2 cup crumbled feta
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• Fresh ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup chopped parsley
• Pita bread (you could also use naan bread)

1. Combine chicken, cucumbers, scallions, capers and tomatoes in bowl.

2. Mix up feta and yogurt -- you can do this by hand if you like chunkier dressing or in a food processor if you like it smooth. Mix in the oregano.

3. Pour dressing over chicken mixture and stir just to coat. Sprinkle with pepper and parsley and serve with pita bread.

Click here for printable recipe

Yogurt Granola Parfait

This week at the Jackson House is "Breakfast For Dinner Week," which we do every once in a while and then while it is going on always wonder why we don't do it MORE. Dinners are quicker and easier to make, they feel very comfort-food-ish, and are pretty light and healthy. And as someone who is out of the house by 6:15 am every day and eats a hard-boiled egg on the fly, it addresses my breakfast food deprivation issues.

The only challenge with Breakfast For Dinner Week is coming up with menus that don't involve having eggs five nights in a row. Egg entries are always easy: this week we are having scrambled eggs with pesto and fresh ricotta, French omelets, French toast (aka bread soaked in egg). Huevos rancheros are always a popular entry, as is pasta carbonara, which is stretching the Breakfast For Dinner concept a little far, but who's counting? In the winter I work in my favorite cinnamon oatmeal with apples and raisins, but in the dog days of summer not even the cooperative Southern husband would be happy to see a steaming bowl of oatmeal for dinner.

Which is why we had such a happy dinner last night with this little gem: nice big yogurt granola parfaits. I filled up our biggest Waterford crystal glasses with layers of vanilla yogurt, homemade granola and fresh berries, and topped it off with a little bit of shredded coconut. I had a tin of butterscotch shortbread biscuits from my last trip to London and we had those on the side, and felt like we had the perfect mixture of breakfast and dessert for dinner.

The "recipe" for this is pretty self-explanatory, and you can and should mix it up in whatever way you want. The only thing I would say is, make sure you have really great granola to use. We have an absolutely fabulous recipe for granola that my talented Southern husband makes on a regular basis. I was all set to include that recipe with this post, but when I mentioned that he looked completely shocked that I would play so fast and loose with his favorite secret recipe. So for now this post is the above description of the yogurt granola parfait. But if anyone just can't bear to live without our secret recipe, email me and I will see what I can do. :-)

Greek Nachos

One of the things I love to do is explore all the really great food and cooking blogs out there, and one of my very favorites is called "Bitten." It is written by the amazing Mark Bittman, and appears on the New York Times website. It is a fascinating collection of recipes, food articles, with various guest writers and tons of commentary from the community reading the different articles...basically an all-out love-fest of good food. I check on it regularly and am never ever disappointed. INTIMIDATED, maybe, but not disappointed.

Last week Mark ran an article that included a recipe for Greek-Style Nachos, and it is one of those recipes that makes you smack yourself on the side of the head and say, "why didn't I think of that??" It takes the basic nacho approach -- foundation of chips topped with meat, veggies and cheese -- but the chips are made of pita, the meat is lamb and the cheese is a feta-yogurt-mint blend. Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum. Yum. Quick, fun and unexpected.

If you aren't familiar with Mark's cookbooks, you should know that he wrote one of my favorite general resource cookbooks ever, called HOW TO COOK EVERYTHING. And it pretty much is exactly that. Take a look here:

HOW TO COOK EVERYTHING

And if you want to check out Mark's rocking great blog Bitten, take a look here. (But don't forget to come back to mine. Fair is fair.)

BITTEN

Where I notice he just posted an article on Cold Sesame Noodles, which I already have five different recipes for, but because I worship at his feet I will be trying HIS.

And if you want to try his Greek Nachos, here you go:

Greek Nachos

Just remember who your friends are, and come back to me when you are done making friends with Mark. Because tomorrow I am making Mexican Tuna Salad, and last I checked, he hasn't caught up with me on that one yet!