Happy Monday everyone! I hope everyone had a great weekend. Ours was pretty low-key, which was really nice. I made dinner on Saturday for some friends who just had twins (!!) – we took the meal over and ate at their house. I can't imagine how dramatically life would change with one baby, much less two at the same time. They said that was their first homemade meal in 3 months! Made me happy to be able to bless them in that small way - cooking is truly my love language.

Most of you probably realize this, but these pictures were NOT taken in my kitchen. (I wish!) These were taken in my friend Jeanine's beautiful Austin home, i.e. the creative hub of her blog Love & Lemons. You may recognize the space by now from my Austin dinner party post and last week's peach blackberry crumble recipe. Jeanine and her husband Jack snapped these pictures while I was prepping for our dinner party there in June. Side note: my tiny kitchen – all 48 square feet of it – was featured last week on Tasting Table! (Read the story if you want to know how I function in such a limited space.)

Gazpacho-Anna

Opening photo + above photos by Jack Mathews & Jeanine Donofrio of Love & Lemons.

For our Austin dinner party, I made gazpacho from the beautiful heirloom tomatoes we found at the farmers' market there. Lucky for me, Jeanine had a Vitamix, which made for an extra-creamy gazpacho. (You don't have to have a Vitamix, though – I make mine in a pretty standard blender.) During the hottest months of the summer, this chilled soup – packed full of vegetables and bright summery flavors – is one of my favorite things to make. It's so easy, so pretty, and really healthy to boot. And, given you can only make this a few months out of the year, now's the time to enjoy it.

Many gazpacho recipes require peeling tomatoes, but I find that it's fussy and time-consuming. Instead I puree them with their skins on and just strain the mixture afterwards to get rid of the skins. So much easier that way! I also add some mango as a garnish, to add a touch of sweetness to it. Jeanine shared my gazpacho recipe on Love & Lemons last month, so I figured I should share it with you all as well. And: spoiler alert, this will be in the cookbook as well, accompanied by Signe's lovely image below.

Gazpacho-Beauty

Photo by Signe Birck

[recipe:best-heirloom-tomato-gazpacho-mangoes-cucumber-recipe]