Homemade Tomato Soup

Homemade tomato soup.

I recently checked out Gwyneth Paltrow's new cookbook.  It's full of healthy recipes and little bits and blurbs about her family growing up and current.  I fell in love with her when she filmed Emma and dated Brad Pitt.  Then she got kind of weird and named her kids Apple and Moses.  But the cookbook is fun to read and only a few of the recipes are weird or have ingredients that are non-existent in our neck of the woods.

Slow-Roasted Tomato Soup
adapted from My Father’s Daughter by Gwyneth Paltrow
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (or more, as desired)
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 fresh, large basil leaves
1 (28-ounce) can whole peeled tomatoes, with juices
16 pieces slow-roasted tomatoes (8 whole tomatoes), roughly chopped
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook for two minutes, stirring so that it doesn’t burn. Add the basil leaves, tomatoes and juice, and 1 1/2 cups of water. Bring the soup to a boil for 1 minute, then reduce the heat to low and simmer it uncovered for 40 minutes. As it simmer gently break part the tomatoes with a wooden spoon. After cooking stir in the slow-roasted tomatoes and season with salt and pepper to taste.

**I ended up adding quite a bit of salt as it was a bit bland.  But the addition of those little garlic bagel chips made it soooo good!

Cookie Bars

Have you ever tried the chocolate chip cookie pan bar recipe on the back of the Nestle Tollhouse chocolate chip bag?

You really ought to give it a try.

Tortilla Soup

I never thought I liked tortilla soup.

I have never tried it, but always assumed I wouldn't like it.

But after reading a recipe for it I realized that I like all the ingredients so I thought, why not?

Here's the .recipe

It was outstanding, awesome and delish!

Zucchini Bread

I've had quite a few zucchini this season.

Most have been used for the earlier post about zucchini, butter and parm.

But about once a week I have enough to make some zucchini bread.

I just use the recipe in my red and white checked Betty Crocker cookbook.

Betty Crocker Zucchini Bread

The only change I make is omitting the nuts and raisins and adding 1 cup chocolate chips.

Because I'm cool like that.

Roasted Tomato Crostini

A little slice of Heaven here.

I recently checked out Gwyneth Paltrow's new cookbook.

This was the first recipe of hers I tried and it is awesome!

You roast tomatoes in a 275 degree oven for 3 hours (you can make a lot of tomatoes and they keep in the fridge for a week).  Slice and toast crostini.  Slice fresh mozzerella (it called for smoked but our little grocery store doesn't get that fancy), top with tomatoes and drizzle with good balsalmic. 

Put back in the 275 oven for just a few minutes to let the cheese melt a little.

Oh my!

Pasta Alla Besty (another way)

So, I've blogged about P-dub's Pasta Alla Betsy before.  It's a real treat in our house simply because I don't get to Costco more than once a month to get good shrimp.  Last week when making out the menu, I wrote that we would have Pasta Alla Betsy on Wednesday night.  My wonderful mommy-fried brain failed to remember that I actually needed shrimp for the recipe and around 5:00 when I started to cook, I realized the mistake.  The only meats I had on hand were red meat and some chicken breasts.  I opted for the chicken.  I sauteed it just like I would have done with the shrimp and followed the rest of the recipe.  It was really good!  Give it a whirl!

Meatballs and Marinara

I dug out one of my old cookbooks the other day in search of some new recipes.  I found one that looked very close to Kohler Spaghetti and gave it a whirl.
America's Test Kitchen (have you heard of it or watched it on PBS)?  It's a program that takes recipes and tweaks them to be the best of the bunch.  They spend loads of time and money trying the recipes all different ways to find the one that is the best.  The best taste, the best ingredients, the best cooking methods.  I've never been disappointed. 

Cooks Country Meatballs and Marinara

Zucchini

We have a lot of zucchini and sometimes I'm at a loss as to what to make with it.

Our two staples when the zucchini is in abundance are zucchini bread and this lovliness above.

My mom came up with it when we were growing up and it's the best way (I think) to eat it!

Peel and slice zucchini.  In a microwave safe dish layer the slices of zucchini with shredded parmesan, slices of butter and pepper.  Don't be stingy with the parm!  Microwave until tender.

I could eat it all by myself.

This week our dinners are going to be really light.

Three of the boys start football (two in pads) from 6:30-8:30pm every night.

With the heat we've been getting, there is no way 4/7 of us are going to want to eat anything heavy.

Tonight, we had BLT's!

Toasted whole wheat bread, leaf lettuce, these beauties I grew in my garden and a little mayo.

Delish!

I also made some homemade mac and cheese (for the younger two and ME)!