Ava loves to ask what she’ll be able to do when she’s X years old. What can she do when she’s 7? How old does she have to be to drive a car? How old will Maxine be when she’s 9? How old does Mommy think she is eating all those prunes?

Today in the car on the way to the grocery store (where else would we be going?) she asked what she can do when she’s 13.

Me: *thoughtful for a moment* Ummm, you can babysit.

Ava: BABY SIT?!? Naw, that’s boring.

Me: You get paid money to baby sit.

Ava: *Absolutely incredulous* Are you kidding me?! Granny gets paid money to baby sit us?!

No, I’m not kidding you – and NO I definitely do NOT pay Granny to baby sit you. In fact, I make Granny pay ME with gazpacho when she baby sits you!

My mom has been singing the praises of gazpacho all summer and I’m finally just catching on to this gazpacho business.

In typical Alison fashion – just in time for the first frost and for tomato season to be officially over. Way to go me! But then again it’s not unusual for me to be running late, returning library books a couple days after their due date, keeping fetuses locked up inside beyond 40 weeks. That’s just how I roll. I guess this should come as no surprise that I found a new favorite dish at the end of tomato season.

Last Saturday I practically had to pry a dish of gazpacho from Granny’s white knuckled clutches before I left her house with my children. In fact I threatened not to take them home with me unless she handed over the goods. I ate it after the half marathon on Sunday and it was so good I settled out of the court for the recipe so I could recreate it at home.

This is my mom’s recipe, inspired from the gazpacho recipe in The Raw Food Detox Diet by Natalia Rose.

4 or 5 medium tomatoes, seeded & stem removed
½ large red bell pepper, seeded
½ English cucumber, peeled (or ½ regular cuke, peeled and seeded)
½ to 1 clove garlic, chopped
½ cup vegetable juice Vegetable juice? Yeah, there’s none of that laying around here. Cause I DRANK it all!
¼ cup (or more) olive oil
1 t salt, or to taste
1 t cayenne pepper, or to taste

Put all ingredients in food processor and puree until smooth.

Refrigerate several hours & stir again before eating.

She also notes not to omit the olive oil because it imparts a great flavor, and for raw tomatoes, it’s the only way that your body can access the lycopenes. I did NOT know that. Is that in the Raw Food Detox Diet? I got from the library and returned it (late) long ago so I don’t have the book anymore to go back and look. Good thing that question didn’t show up on the Raw Food Final Exam.

So here we go, the start of my seven course dinner.

Veggies, into the food processor bowl. Enter Course 1: the other half of the red sweet pepper that wasn’t required for the recipe of course.

I wanted to stream the olive oil into the food processor as it was doing it’s thing, but trying to do that and hold the camera steady to take a picture at the same time? Not so much.

Take 1 and Take 2.

There were no more “Takes” after Take 2 lest my gazpacho have more lycopene’s than you can shake a fist at.

My very first gazpacho. Also, my Course 2.

This is SO good I did NOT refrigerate it for even one moment before I tossed that spoon into the corner of the dining room and slurped it straight from the bowl. OK I guess I did use the spoon for a little while but there was definitely bowl slurp-age at the end. My breakfast tomorrow is refrigerating as I type.

Next I did what any sane person would do and made a batch of sun dried tomato hummus since I already had the food processor out.

I swear to God, give me a jar of sun dried tomatoes and I’m putting them in anything and everything until the jar is empty.

Enter: Course 3

Toasted sesame Ezekiel bread, mustard, fresh sun dried tomato hummus, spinach and sprouts.

And HALLELUJAH Medjool dates are back at Wegmans! They’ve been out for at least two weeks and I’ve been suffering the symptoms of date withdrawal, having to tape prunes to my upper arm like a nicotine patch for crying out loud. But oh yes, that was me tonight leaving the store with the 8 lb box of medjool dates, escorted by security whilst snarling and snapping at anyone who raised an eye brow or asked if they could have just one.

Course 4

And Course 5 and 6 and 7 too.

That’s right. FOUR. Don’t judge me.

I almost hyperventilated when I realized that tonight is the season premiere of 30 Rock and The Office! I haven’t watched TV all summer but you can bet your butt I’m clicking Publish and am off to dig out the Bendryl to make sure Thing 1 and Thing 2 go down without a fight!

Alright, alright just kidding – settle down! The Bendryl is here on my desk I don’t have to dig anything out.

ANOTHER JOKE – geez man don’t call CPS on me, the neighbors call enough as it is.

OK I’m stopping now. Really.