I got a blender (Breville Fresh and Furious) and was able to try it out with these recipes! It was my first time doing three dishes in one night, but thankfully none of them were too much effort that it was overwhelming (that's the nice thing about making soup -- you can do other things while it's cooking).
*** Tomato soup ***
I used the recipe here. I got tomatoes from a local farmer's market. They aren't Florida tomatoes, but they *are* local tomatoes! Though, I regret buying the first substantial tomatoes that I saw. It was very smoky outside so I didn't want to spend too much time perusing the booths. After I bought plain beefsteak tomatoes I saw many more vendors had giant colorful heirloom tomatoes, which probably would have made this taste even better. Oh well.
The carrots were also local, bought a few weeks ago. The half onion was left over from a few weeks ago. In fact, the basil was also from a few weeks ago. It's doing well in my windowsill; I just have to water it a bunch. Now, when I'm gone for the next week and a half...
I didn't have crushed red pepper, so I used two dried cayenne peppers instead. It definitely made the soup spicier than other tomato soups I've had. It was a great addition!
The blender worked super well. I just blended it in halves.
Verdict: really delicious! I should get a soup spoon sometime (currently working with small teaspoons).
*** Avocado, corn, and cucumber salad ***
I used the recipe here. I originally wanted to find frozen avocado chunks, but couldn't find them anywhere so just used a ripe avocado instead. I also didn't use corn off the cob, just frozen corn.
I tried out my new citrus juicer for the first time this week, too. Unfortunately it juiced the lime a bit *too* well because the salad came out very lime-y and wet.
Verdict: with less lime juice, it could be really good. But it's just a bit too wet for my taste.
*** Strawberry smoothie ***
I used the recipe here. I used a frozen banana and strawberry mix rather than fresh fruit. I also used whole milk instead of skim, and local plain sheep's milk yogurt. The blender worked very well here too! It only took a few seconds to fully blend.
Verdict: very good and refreshing! It's hard to go wrong with a smoothie though. I only had half of the batch the first day, so kept it in the fridge in the blender the second day. It was a bit too liquidy when I had it after a day. So I'd probably blend it a little less, or use a higher fruit to liquid ratio next time. Using whatever the local yogurt is was a good idea -- it is similar to Greek yogurt and so it has a bit of a bite to it, which really added to the taste.
All three dishes! I apologize for the presentation. I have very little dishware with me here x)
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