Sunday Soup

 On cold Winter  weekends, when I have time to really cook, I love to make all different kinds of soup.  I used to make only chunky style soups, such as minestrone, vegetable, etc.  Over the years though, I have come to appreciate the simplicity of pureed soups.  If they are seasoned well, they can be just the right thing for a hearty lunch, or light dinner on a chilly day.



Just a few ingredients, and you have a delicious, gourmet soup!



My top three favorite pureed soups are white bean, butternut squash, and tomato.  Today I am sharing my recipe for what I like to call "Truly Italian Tomato Soup".  It's rich and creamy, and really easy to make.  My favorite time to make it is actually in Summer or early Fall, when I have an abundance of fresh tomatoes from my garden.  When I'm really thinking ahead, I throw some overripe tomaoes on a cookie sheet, freeze them, and store in a zip-lock bag.  These work perfectly for soups, stews, and sauce later in the year when garden-grown tomatoes are just a sweet memory.

For today's soup, I used canned roma tomatoes with basil and dried oregano, but in Summer, I use fresh tomatoes, with fresh basil and oregano from my garden.

These measurements can be tweaked, it won't make the soup any worse by not being exact.  If you're like me, you don't use measuring cups too much when cooking .

The addition of Mascarpone cheese at the end makes this soup really rich and creamy.  I am totally addicted to this stuff right now, it's good in pastas, cheese cake, and whipped with cream and sugar for a light dessert topping for fresh summer fruit.   If you want a lighter soup, add only half the mascarpone, you can even leave it out altogether, but it won't be quite as good.  Whipping cream or fat-free half and half can also be substituted.

Saute red onion and garlic in olive oil.



Add 2 cans whole, peeled,  roma tomatoes, salt, pepper, oregano, and 1 to 1 1/2 cups of chicken broth or vegetable broth if you want to keep it vegetarian..



Transfer soup to a large bowl, and puree  in blender or food processor in batches.

 I also suggest you make some of my yummy home-made croutons to go on top of your soup, you'll never buy store-bought again!  These are the same croutons I make for my home-made caesar salad.

Ingredients for croutons:  sourdough bread, fresh garlic,  Italian parsley, olive oil and butter (optional), parmesan cheese and a dash of salt (optional).

Cube the bread, add to bowl with cheese, garlic, parsley.  Melt butter, if using, and combine with olive oil.  Pour over bread and other ingredients.  Toss together well, adding more oil if bread looks dry.

Spread bread mixture on a cookie sheet, bake at 300-325 degrees for 10 minutes, remove pan and toss with metal spatula and bake for another 10 min. or so, depending on desired crispiness.

My kids visit the kitchen a whole lot when these are cooling on the stove, they are addictive!


Keep watch over these babies, otherwise they'll all be gone before your soups is done!



Truly Italian Tomato Soup

• 1 - 2 Tbs. Olive Oil
• 1 Large red onion, diced
• 2-3 Cloves fresh garlic, chopped
• 2 - 28oz. cans whole, peeled roma tomatoes w/ basil
• 1 - 1 1/2 C. Organic Chicken or Vegetable Stock/Broth
• 8 oz. container of Mascarpone Cheese
• 2 tsp. course Kosher or Sea Salt
• Fresh ground black pepper to taste
• 1 tsp. dried oregano

 Saute onions and garlic in olive oil in large soup/stew pot, over med. heat.  Add both cans of tomatoes, and use a potato masher or knife to break up tomatoes into large chunks.  Add salt, pepper, oregano, and simmer for about 5 minutes.  Add chicken broth, cover, and bring to a boil.  Remove lid, reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 15-20 minutes.  Turn off heat, transfer mixture to a large bowl.  In batches (2 or 3), puree soup in blender.*   As you blend each batch, place it back into soup pot and return to a simmer.  At this point, you can add more broth if soup is too thick.  Add the mascarpone cheese and whisk in until nice and smooth.  Check for seasoning and add salt and pepper to taste if necessary.  Top with croutons, or serve with warm bread or grilled cheese.

* Important note - be careful to cover lid of blender tightly, covering with a kitchen towel and holding lid securely while blending.  Hot soup can literally be explosive, trust me, I've had tomato soup all over my kitchen before!

 

Delicious and healthy tomato soup, yum yum!





I love these guys!

These guys I am referring to are Renato Poliafito and Matt Lewis, owners of the famed Baked Bakery in Brooklyn, NY and now Charleston, SC.  They are also the guys who have created my two favorite baking cookbooks.  You have seen me mention them before, and I HIGHLY recommend their cookbooks.  They will make you a ROCK STAR baker!

If it sounds like I'm gushing...well, I guess I am.  But, when every recipe you try out of a cookbook turns out deliciously amazing, what can a girl/wannabe baker, do???

I have tried several recipes out of their first book, Baked, New Frontiers in Baking, and they have all been wonderful!  So far, I've tried just one recipe out of their new book, Baked Explorations - Classic American Desserts Reinvented, and yep....awesome!  These boys really don't disappoint!

The cake I made from their new book, Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cake,  shown below, was so yummy!  It's like an oatmeal, chocolate chip cookie, but made as a cake w/ cream cheese frosting to top it off!
I love their books, for making me look so good!  Someday, my dream is to visit one of their bakeries...

Getting all my ingredients together...

Oats and butter...mmmmmm, good!

Oats, butter, mixed w/ brown sugar, sugar, eggs

Chocolate chips and my handy little kitchen scale.

Result:  Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cake!

Something new

Part of what I wanted to do here on this blog, is share my experiences with new recipes.  Sometimes I'm sure I will find a recipe that I won't make again.  This might be one of those.  Not horrible by any means, but maybe a little rich for our tastes.

For a while now, probably since I saw the movie It's Complicated, I've wanted to make croque monsieur or croque madame.  Remember when Meryl whips it up for Steve, and how impressed he is? So, this past weekend, another experimentation.

The results?  Mixed...I liked it, although it is an encredibly rich dish, but my daughter says once is enough.

Now, keep in mind this dish is decadent.  It's basically a French version of an American ham and cheese sandwich, and for good measure, throw a fried egg on top.  Once again, as I often do, I did not follow one recipe in particular, but instead reviewed a few and improvised.  The recipe always calls for gruyere cheese, of the Swiss cheese family.  I found a cheese that was a said it was a "melange" of gruyere and white cheddar.  I like to buy things that I know I can use again, not just for one recipe and then wonder what to do with the leftovers.  I do consider myself a bit of a frugal gourment after all.

The flop part of this recipe for me was that I overcooked my eggs.  My intention was to leave them sunnyside up, rather than a full (flipped) fried egg, but this is where my daughter objected.  So, I flipped the egg, and let it sit a little too long while I was broiling the cheese/ham/sauce mixture and the eggs got a bit overdone.  I would have liked a runnier yolk.  Overall, it has a rich, creamy taste with a little tang from the dijon mustard that helps to cut through the richness of the bechamel sauce. My daughter still says she'll stick with Eggs Benedict.



The basic ingredients:  french bread, dijon mustard, ham, gruyere cheese, bechamel sauce, & eggs.

I am sharing with you two basic recipes I found on the Food Network site, to give you an idea of how this dish is made. Find them here and here.  By the way, the difference between croque monsieur and croque madame is the addition of the fried egg on top (madame). 


Making the bechamel sauce.



Toasting the bread.



Bread, ham, cheese sauce, more cheese, ready for the broiler...



After the broiling...




So, if you feel like transporting youself to a french bistro for brunch, give it a try...



Finished product!



Dinner Tonight

During the week, our meals are ususally pretty simple, many times eating leftovers.  After 8+ hours of work, and sometimes school meetings or events, it doesn't leave a lot of time to get too fancy.  The weekend is when I really get to experiment.

Saturday night I made something I remember my mom making occastionally growing up.  Polenta, basically a corn meal mush, considered Italian peasant food.  She always served it along with her homemade beef stew, but many people eat it with sausage and red sauce.  By adding some cheese and milk, this dish can really be a rich and delicious bed for any type of sauce or gravy.  My kids have never been a huge fan of polenta, which is the reason why I've only made it once before.  Since my youngest daughter and I have been cooking together a lot lately, she has been more open to trying new foods.

I didn't really follow the recipe I printed, word for word, as I wanted to reduce the serving size from the original 8-10 servings to 2-3.  I also found two recipes that both sounded good, so I made sort of a combination of these two recipes, find them here and here.

I served the polenta with pork tenderloin with a mushroom sauce, and fresh zucchini.  I like pork tenderloin, because it's nice and lean, and there are so many different ways to flavor it. It is reasonably priced and can be purchased in small pieces.   I love using my cast iron skillet for the pork, it gives it a nice sear on the outside, which really helps to seal in the juices and keep the meat nice and moist.  I have learned that the secret with pork, is to not overcook it, as it can easily dry out if you do.  I never use a recipe for a dish like this, just use what I have on hand and usually make it a little different every time. I like to "ad-lib" when I cook.

This time I had leeks on hand, so instead of the shallots I used last time, I used garlic and leaks, and in place of white wine, I used dry vermouth.  It gave it a nice rich, sweet flavor.  I always add a little tomato, either in paste form or just some chopped fresh tomato...just a little, I am not making a red sauce, but the addition of the tomato gives it another layer of flavor.  For the sauce, I also use chicken broth or chicken paste and water, if you don't have a container of broth already open.  Sometimes I'll add a touch of cornstarch (mixed in water or broth first), to very slightly thicken the sauce.  This is not something you have to do, a thin sauce will taste just as good.  I finish the whole thing off in the oven over the pork, while the meat finishes cooking and the sauce reduces.  I may have thickened the sauce too much this time, or mayble I just didn't have enough liquid to start with,  it reduced down a little more than I wanted, but the flavor was rich and delicious. By baking the whole thing in the oven, you really can't go wrong with the sauce, the flavor really intensifies.

I seasoned the tenderloin with salt, pepper & dried sage and seared it over high heat on all sides.





Sliced leaks and mushrooms (cremini & button), and chopped garlic add lots of flavor.



I sauteed the onions, tomato, garlic in olive oil, and I season with salt.

Then I added the mushrooms and a touch of butter.  I sauteed them in 2 batches, as Julia would say, "don't crowd the mushrooms!"

The final step, I added dry vermouth, chicken stock, (taste for additional salt), & pepper.  I let it a boil for just a couple minutes, then reduced the heat to a low simmer and added a little more butter to finish it off.

While you are making the sauce, the meat can be cooking in the oven on 375, once you add the sauce, lower heat to 350 and continue to cook until desired doneness, I like mine still a little pink inside.



I auteed some fresh zucchini in olive oil and fresh chopped garlic, seasoned with salt and pepper.

And finaly, I served it with creamy, cheesy polenta, yum yum!





Food is Love

I recommend this book!

I recently read a book that combined two of my favorite things...food and love.  Lunch in Paris, is both a novel and cookbook.  It is actually a memoir written by Elizabeth Bard, an American who winds up in Paris, with recipes (mostly French) scattered throughout the book.  During my temporary ownership (I use the library), I managed to make two of the recipes.  Now I wish I had remembered to write down a few lines in the book that I knew I'd want to remember.  It talked about how there is a link between love of food and sexual passion. The author compared a woman who just picks at her food  to a woman who thoroughly enjoys her food and eats with passion, and how that is a tell-tale sign of how they are in bed.  I love that theory!!!

Lately, my youngest daughter, Alyssa, 15, has been sharing the cooking duties at our house.  She had been the one out of my two girls who showed an interest in cooking at an early age.  She started off with omelets and scrambles...I'd often come home on weekend mornings  from the gym, to find the smell of garlic and onions hit me as soon as I walked in.  She's be chopping veggies to mix in with scrambled eggs for the three of us.  She mastered  risotto by the tender age of  12.  Now, she threatens to take over my kitchen!  Really, I'm just kidding, it's nice to have help in the kitchen.  I call her my little "sous chef".  Last week alone, she took over three of our dinner meals, all recipes from our favorite chef Giada.  The were all delicious, I know Giada would be impressed!




Alyssa's interpretation of Giada's Rigatoni with Creamy Mushroom Sauce.

 

I love that I have passed to her a love of cooking, just as my mother and grandmother passed down to me.  Even my oldest daughter Kristil, 19, took a little interest in what was going on in the kitchen while she was home from college over Christmas.  Not only did she pitch in a little with my Christmas cookies, she even helped make a delicious mushroom wine sauce for our Christmas Eve prime rib.   I really wished I could freeze time when I had both my girls in the kitchen with me, all three of us, cooking, baking, and laughing together.

Food really is Love.

Come cook with me...

I decided to start a blog devoted solely to my love of cooking and baking.  So here I am.

My goal is to share with you my love of good food, while trying new ingredients, finding amazing recipes,  and creating my own recipes.  I will share my successes and my flops, so come along and enjoy the ride.

For my first post, I thought I would share with you a few of my favorite cookbooks.  My only criteria when purchasing a new cookbook, is that it has color pictures.  I am a very visual person, and I need to see what the food looks like first, that will then inspire me to read further and see if it's something I might want to make.

Not only is she GORGEOUS, but her recipes ROCK!

I am in LOVE with this cookbook!



Just got this for Christmas, can't wait to try a recipe out of it!