Food fight

I love tomatoes.  I love them sliced with a sprinkling of sugar, in salads, roasted long and slow.  And they are good for much more than eating.  What do I mean?  Read on.

On the last Wednesday of every August (which is today), in a small town in Spain, thousands of people gather to throw tons and tons of tomatoes.  I mean that literally -- tons, not pounds, tons of tomatoes. 

It is considered the world's largest food fight.

Here's the link:  https://www.latomatinatours.com/

Read all about it and enjoy.  Perhaps one day I or one of this blog's readers will attend this food fight festival and we'll see a first-hand report on it.

In the meantime, maybe you can start a small version of this on your own neighborhood street.

OK, OK, maybe not.  I don't think people will appreciate here.  But they do in Spain.

Carrot bisque recipe

It's summer still but my gut tells me it's not far from over and soon autumn will be making it's presence felt.  Maybe that's because the sky has clouded up here and it's threatening to rain.  Whether we have an early autumn start or not, it's always a good time for a good soup that makes one think of fall harvests.

Here's my recipe for carrot bisque.

  

I love to make this.  It's creamy and smooth, and the carrot and spices are perfect together, in my opinion.  Sometimes I've made this in double batches, but I find it's always easier and more consistent to make it in smaller batches.  

Give it a try and see how you like it!

Haleem

In my home, there is always lots of food being prepared.  We enjoy going out as well, trying new restaurants, etc.  But when we make things here at home, it is always the most satisfying and the most enjoyable.

This dish is a wonderful dish to make at home.  Haleem is a lentil stew with lots of spices and onions, and in this case chicken as well.  The chicken is in there twice.  First, it is cooked in the lentil stew, having been put in as shredded pieces.  And then we take an immersion blender and do a rough blend to grind up the chicken and thicken up the stew.  Usually that's where it ends and it's all done.  However in this case, we have added more chunks of wonderfully slow-cooked chicken with more spices.  This is all simmered slowly for a time.  Then to add one more element, it has been spooned over fresh biscuits.

What you get is a warm, spicy, high-protein, healthy dish that is an excellent comfort food, perfect in the winter when you need to be warmed up with spices, but also great in the summer for filling up after after a day of activity that has left you hungry.

Lentils are often overlooked here in the US.  However, in many parts of the world they are one of the most common ingredients to use.  Give them a try sometime.

And look up a few haleem recipes.  There are many of them out there.  Everyone has their on take on spices to add, how long to cook, whether to use chicken or goat or something else.  Let it cook long and slow and then grind it up with an immersion blender or a food processor.  You'll be happy you gave it a try.

National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day

Today, August 4, is National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day.

For more on the story as to how chocolate chips wound up in cookies in the first place, follow this link:  https://www.nationaldaycalendar.com/national-day/national-chocolate-chip-day-august-4

As most of my readers know, I have multiple chocolate chip cookie recipes on my menu.  Each one is different in significant ways.  Some have a different blend of chunks vs. chips.  Some have a different blend of semisweet vs. dark chocolate.  Some are made with different flours.

The bottom line is that each one is unique in some way.  And they are all delicious.  I think that even a bad chocolate chip cookie (relatively speaking) is still pretty darn good.

My favorite thing to do is to use a variety of types of chocolate in cookies.  I love the complexity of flavor that comes out.  It's a deeper flavor, more interesting, and more chocolaty, I think.  But whether you use one type or many, they are still awesome.  Agreed?

The most important thing is to use the best chocolate you can find.  Get a good cookie recipe and an excellent chocolate, and you will have an excellent cookie.

I could commemorate the day by baking some.  But I'm not planning on baking any chocolate chip cookies today because I really don't feel like running my oven on this excessively hot afternoon.  

That's all for today.  Go out and get yourself a good cookie.