I Don't Know if I Cook Anymore!

Since I got this garden thing going, the food is coming in a little more reliably now. At first it was just arugula. Then a few leaves of lettuce. Some cucumbers. Tomatoes.
Each time I eat something from my garden, I have a mental checkmark saying, "OK, I tried that."
But I have to keep remembering that the food keeps growing and I will have to eat it again. And again.
Oh, wow, to quote a hippie I used to be. This is too cool.
So yesterday I prepared four glasses of deconstructed gazpacho from the garden. I had seen a version of it on a blog (cannot refind it, so sorry!), and since we were having friends for dinner, I thought it would be a swanky presentation.
Almost everything was grown in the yard, although we added store-bought vinegar, oil, onions and some mild peppers — all local — plus a little corporate, evil salt. (Salt is necessary for your body; I'm just spoofing my local-ass self.)
Finely diced vegetables were layered in colorful arrangements with occasional sprinklings of salt. When the final layer went on, I realized I had forgotten to put in any onions. Ew, that would make a terrible top layer. Cranky's solution was to puree onion bits with a garlic press, and we stirred the mush into some vinegar and drizzled it over the top. A little olive oil, and a garnish of toasted baguette slice, and done. Cute.
Today we were discussing our trendy verrine. Cranky said, "Wha?" Like he had not heard me already calling the deconstructed gazpacho a verrine.
He thought I was talking about Ben Vereen. Cranky can be so un-trendy.
Doesn't mean he didn't like the "gazpacho."
But now we're just calling it salad in a glass.
(P.S. I do still cook. We also had some spaghetti with cooked backyard arugula in it. And, hey — I did have to run the oven a little to toast those baguette slices.)