I insisted that i would make dinner for Ginny and her girlfriend before she left. I don't know if i'll ever see her again. This is my version of a small summer feast. It also uses up stuff that was in the freezer and pantry!

Cool corn soup

a coupla white potatoes, cubed small
half a mild onion, chopped up similarly
soymilk (Ginny's a vegan, you can use your favorite creamy dairy thing)
corn (i used both fresh corn cut off the cob and the remainder of a bag of frozen corn)
peas (i had almost half a cup of frozen peas to use up)
salt
coarse-ground pepper
Well, i didn't realize that the blender was already packed. But that's fine. I boiled the potatoes and onions until the potatoes are soft, poured out most of the water, and mashed it up with my grandmother's potato masher, adding soymilk. It's coarse. I don't mind. You might, but then again, you might have a blender! Turn off the heat and add whatever frozen stuff you might have (while it's still hot!)

Once that's all thawed and nice, add the fresh corn (cut off the cob) and salt and pepper to taste. Then chill it, while making the spinach. On top of this i put:

roasted red peppers
tempeh, crisped to dark dark brown in a skillet, and salted and crumbled. yum.
more pepper, 'cause the soup is so white it just looks pretty
Spinach - curry or something
garlic
ginger
halfa green chile pepper, however much you can stand
the other half of the onion
butter or margarine (for the vegan)
Cumin, turmeric, coriander, allspice, pepper, salt, cinnamon, cayenne
lemon zest
Firm tofu, cut in cubes
spinach: washed, dried, chopped
Once you've finished with the tempeh, melt the butter/margarine in the skillet. Add the minced garlic, ginger, chile, and chopped onion. When the onion is translucent, add the spices (in whatever proportion appeals), and mix it up good. Stir in the tofu and let it absorb all that good taste. Smile at the people who walk in and comment on how good the kitchen smells. Then add the lemon zest and spinach, and cook until the spinach is soft.

I put mung bean sprouts on this because they're crunchy and cool.

We ate this on the porch and laughed. I think this might be an important ingredient. We had white wine and slapped mosquitos and i saw a shooting star behind Ginny's head. Being sad was only touched on a couple of times in the conversation.

While Ginny and Kathy were happily sorting books to pack and smooching in the hall, i took the mango that had been chopped and soaking in lemon juice in the freezer, some thawed strawberries mashed up (tolja i was using up stuff from the freezer!), lemon sorbet, and (Ginny's favorite) Lambic Framboise and arranged them in bowls. Then surprised them.

Last minutes can magnify every gesture into something larger than itself.

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