When life gives you cucumbers!

When life gives you cucumbers..........................................................................make Green Gazpacho!

Disappointments come easily when the garden doesn't live up to expectations - the good years are always discussed lovingly. "Remember the year we were still picking a ton of green tomatoes in October when the first frost was expected?" The poor years, such as this one, are best forgotten, except for cucumbers, well we did pick several pounds of tender haricot verts, but the tomatoes and peppers were disappointing. However, those European cucumbers - all grown from seeds - despite almost no rain, but enough hose water to make us quake in our shoes when the water bill arrives any day now, THESE cucumbers, wow! Bright green, yellow green, a few short and stubby, others as long as baseball bats, some even curved into alphabetical letters - they just keep coming and they are so good - small seeds, sweet, even tender skins.

If you enjoy the better known tomato based red Gazpacho, you may enjoy trying this one for a change. We actually like this one better and tonight, after it's well chilled, we'll enjoy a bowl along with our salmon Caesar salad. Today was another scorcher so anything light and cool is welcome sustenance.

GREEN GAZPACHO

4-5 medium European style cucumbers, peeled, any large seeds removed

1 medium sweet onion, such as Vidalia, cut into chunks

1 red bell pepper and 1 orange or yellow bell pepper, seeded, deribbed and cut into small chunks

1 medium jalapeno pepper seeded, deribbed and chopped

3 large cloves of garlic, minced

4 slices of day old Italian style bread such as Ciabatta, cut into cubes

3/4 cup good quality olive oil

Several sprigs of fresh mint

Juice of one lemon

Salt to taste

Croutons and parsley to garnish

Puree the cucumbers in a food processor until completely liquid, pour into a large bowl. Pulse the onion in food processor until coarsely chopped and add to cucumbers. Pulse peppers until coarse and add to bowl. Place jalapeno, bread cubes, garlic and mint in processor and slowly add olive oil through the feed tube until everything is well blended into a paste. Add to bowl with lemon juice, salt, one cup of ice water and a couple of ice cubes. Stir well and refrigerate at least 3 hours. Stir again, soup should be thick but if too thick add more ice water. Ladle into glass bowls pre-chilled in the freezer. Top with croutons, finely chopped parsley and a drizzle of olive oil. Keeps well refrigerated for a couple of days - 6/8 servings.