I woke up on Sunday and went off to my local market and raided the produce section. I had decided that a nice salad nicoise would be the perfect accompaniment to this dish. I also picked up a bottle of my current favorite cheap wine, the pinot grigio produced by Twin Fin (available from Wine.com). I headed home and got cooking. My plan was to have a lovely late lunch waiting for my husband when he returned from his manly outing. I find its important to remind him of the comforts of home.

The soup was a blast to make because it required no cooking. It gave me the opportunity to spend some quality time with my beloved food processor. I altered the recipe a bit by using only one jalepeno, I’m a wimp when it comes to spicy foods. The final product was lovely, cool and refreshing. I think that next time I make it I’d like to add a citrusy note, maybe lime juice, I think it would give it a little something extra.

To make the presentation special, and because I am big geek who loves to make things look pretty, I decided to serve the soup in a couple of our martini glasses. I garnished with chives from my garden and snipped a couple of the chive blossoms as well. When my husband returned home, all sweaty and smelly, I first sent him to the shower. Then, we settled down to this perfect summer lunch and laughs about his camping misadventures. Then I sat and sipped my wine and watched him clean up the kitchen, a perfect Sunday afternoon.

For entrees Judith, my mother-in-law and I both enjoyed the salad nicoise. This version featured perfectly prepared tuna, egg, roasted peppers, new potatoes, green beans, and some delightful pickled red onions. My husband had the steak frites, cooked to perfection. We enjoyed this with a couple of glasses of house wine. The meal was simply scrumptious.

At Burdick’s desert is not an option. Unless you are a robot, their sweet confections are quite simply too good to pass up. Judith and Casey, my husband, both had frappes made from Burdick’s homemade ice-cream. Judith had the chocolate-banana and Casey had the chocolate-strawberry. The frappes were thick and a rick dark-chocolate in color. I sampled both and I can honestly say that these were the most delicious frappes I’d ever had. I had the hazlenut-orange cake and it was perfect, nutty and sweet.

Of course, I can’t leave Burdick’s without a take-home treat. The brazilian chocolates are my favorite, I savor their rich taste long after I’ve returned home. When I run out, I know its time to go back.