Tomato Soup

Today we have a guest chef in the Cooking Corner, my friend, David G. Woolley from Top Of The Morning. He allowed me to post his recipe here on certain conditions, which are:

As long as you post the following at the top of your how to cook blog in Big, Bold letters with a link over TOP OF THE MORNING BLOG, we will, in this one instance allow it."This recipe is used here by permission of the Top of the Morning blog staff. All tomato rights reserved. Reference to the snot setting is not necessarily associated with the Top of the Morning, its owners or share holders.".

You can also read the post that led up to this recipe here. Do that while your veggies are cooking. In the mean time, hang in there, stay with me and you will be glad you did. This is by far the best tomato soup I have ever eaten. Well worth the conditions stipulated by David.

David doesn't use lists when he tells you how to make something. Lucky for you that I happen to speak male and can translate his narrative into cooking jargon. Here we go: (David's words in red, mine in black)

Tomato Soup

14 oz can of diced tomatoes- drained- reserve juice (if you want more tomato flavor and deeper color, add more diced tomatoes)

Olive oil

Black Pepper

1 white onion- chopped (see how to chop an onion here).

Carrot

2 garlic cloves

Celery Stalk

8 oz can tomato sauce

10-14 oz chicken broth

Bay leaf
Soy milk *optional

While the tomatoes are baking, cut up a whole white onion, a carrot, two garlic cloves, a celery thingy (is it called a stalk?), the saved back tomato juice along with about 8 ounces of tomato sauce and a can of chicken broth. Simmer all of this stuff in a soup pan with about 1/2 cup of olive oil and a bay leaf until the veggies are tender.

This is David's second step, but it makes more sense to me to do it first, so I am going to take a risk and give you the instructions out of order here.

I use my handy dandy veggie chopper for carrots, it goes so much quicker. The smaller you chop them, the faster they cook.

Don't they look pretty together?

To peel the garlic cloves, lay it on the cutting board and using the heel of your hand, press down. Then just peel and chop.

If your hands smell like onion and garlic- rub them over your stainless steel faucet while you are washing them. It will take away the smell.

In the pot ready for the reserved tomato juice, tomato sauce and chicken broth.



Tomato sauce. So many kinds to choose from. The one in the yellow can, El Pato, is one of my favorite, but you have to be willing to have tomato sauce with a kick. Today I chose the Western Family tomato sauce with no salt added.

I also chose the chicken broth with less sodium

On a baking sheet empty one 14 oz. can of diced tomatoes and save back any juices. I never have more than a few spoonfuls. Is it really worth saving back three tablespoons? You can throw in more diced tomato if you like your soup deeper orange in color and more tomato flavor. Cover the tomatoes with between 1/4 cup and 1/3 cup of olive oil. Season with some pepper. Bake for 15-20 mins at 450 degrees. Its supposed to caramelize the tomatoes. Mine just get sizzling hot. Must be the altitude.

Notice all the different kinds of diced tomatoes you can get? I chose to use the Fire Roasted tomatoes today, but next time I think I will try the Lime and Cilantro or the Chipotle Chilies just for a little kick.



Here they are on the baking sheet ready to go into the oven. Drain them before you put them on the sheet, but save the juice.


Drizzle the tomatoes with 1/4-1/3 cup olive oil. Try and get the olive oil that is first cold pressed.
Season them with some black pepper. Bake in a 450* oven for 15-20 minutes. This will carmelize the tomatoes.

And they will look like this when they come out of the oven.

Dump the baked tomatoes and the simmered veggies into a blender and blend the snot out of em, which, translated into more feminine terms would be between 3-4 minutes on the highest setting until it has a creamy texture. If I were a blender manufacturer I'd design a snot setting one click beyond pulverize. You could also try blending this mixture until no celery threads get stuck between your teeth, but then you'd have to eat the soup before it was done and that would pretty much defeat the purpose of making it in the first place. Dumb idea. Just blend the snot out of it.


Notice my blender does not have a snot setting. Nor does it have a pulverize setting. I have no idea where David gets his blenders, but obviously not at the same store I shop at.

I used HI and Icy drink and it worked just fine.

Dump everything back into your soup pan and while you let it simmer for, say 10 or 15 minutes, stir in 1/4 cup of chopped basil leaves and a cup of soy milk. The soy milk is optional. You can leave it out if you don't have any around the house. Everything else is pretty common kitchen fare.

I purchase my basil fresh like this in the produce aisle.

Be sure you use original or plain soy milk. I like the vanilla to drink, but use the plain to cook with. There are many different brands, this is the one I prefer.
MMMM. My house smells so good right now.

There it is. A pretty healthy tomato soup. Its fairly fresh, but its not raw like fresh-from-the-garden cold soups. Its also fairly healthy though it doesn't max out on the high enzyme charts with all the cooking that degrades some enzymes. Add a leafy green salad (a big one) and you'll get all the enzymes you need to keep your energy levels up. This soup is a home run in every other health and nutrition category. From the tomatoes to the healthy olive oil, to the onion and celery and herbs. Its a great soup for you and your family's health.Our family loves it. We hope you will too. If you try it and like it, let me know. If you don't like it, the soup Nazi has a word of advice: "No soup for you!"

I choose baby spinach with kiwi slices and bambino watermelon chunks for the salad.

This soup is filling and oh so good. I will never eat tomato soup from a can again.

Potatoe dish

This potatoe dish has a lot of names: Cheesy potoatoes, festive potatoes are among them. Here in Utah, they are called Funeral Potatoes because they are served at luncheons after a funeral because the recipe feeds quit a few people. So, lets get started.

Funeral Potatoes
* 32 oz bag of frozen shredded hash browns
* 2 (10 3/4 oz) cans Cream of Chicken Soup
* salt and pepper to taste (don't leave these out!)
* 1 cup Sour Cream
* 1 cup grated Cheddar Cheese (I like to use sharp Cheddar Cheese)
* 1/2 cube melted butter or margarine
* 1/4 c. chopped green onion ( I didn't have green onions, a big onion works just fine, and we learned how to chop it last time)
* 2 cups finely crushed Corn Flakes (Optional)
* 2 Tbs butter or margarine melted (Optional)

Directions
1. Grease 9x13 baking dish and preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. In large bowl combine soups, sour cream, cheese, onions, and the melted butter.

3. Gently fold hash browns into mixture.

4. Pour mixture into pan.

5. Combine crushed corn flakes and the 2 Tbs. of melted butter and sprinkle on top of potato mixture. (step 5 is optional)

6. Bake for 30 minutes or until the mixture is bubbly and hot.

Let's chop an onion

Today lets learn a quick and easy way to chop an onion.

First, peel off all of the outer, crispy peel.

Your onion should now look like this

Next, cut off a small part of the top
Place the onion on the flat part you just made, and cut it in half, starting at the root end
You are now going to make a series of verical cuts- about 3-4

Make sure that you do NOT cut all the way through the onion

stop just before the root.

Sometimes it is easier to make the cuts with the onion laying down like this

notice how I stop before going through the root

Now, with the onion laying down, make about 5 cuts the other direction. Again, do not go through the root end

This is what your onion should look like now

One more series of cuts and we will be done

Turn the onion a quarter turn and chop, slicing all the way through

Discard the root end

What you have left is a perfectly diced or chopped onion

Biscuits and Gravy

Biscuits

1/2 cup shortening

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 cup milk

1 3/4 cups flour

3/4 tsp salt

(makes about 10-12 biscuits)

Preheat oven to 400*F

Measure flour, baking powder, and salt into a large mixing bowl

Mix well

Measure shortening and add to flour mixture


Using a pastry blender (or a butter knife), cut the shortening into the
flour mixture

Cutting in

Shortening should look like small crumbs

Pour in milk and stir

just until the dough rounds up into a ball

Sprinkle countertop with a small amount of flour.

Turn dough out onto it and knead for about 2-3 minutes

Roll dough out with a rolling pin till it is about 1/2 inch thick

Choose something round to cut the biscuits out with

pictured are- biscuit cutter, jar lid, glass

Cut the dough, reroll and cut the left over dough
Repeat until all dough is used

Place biscuits on greased cookie sheet

Bake 10-12 minutes in a 400*F oven

Remove from oven and serve with butter, honey, jelly or gravy

Gravy

*Ingredients for two people

but the pictures show it being made for my family of 8

2-3 Tbsp grease

(from bacon, sausage, cooking oil or melted shortening)

Use medium heat

Add 2 Tablespoons flour to grease

Whisk it together and let it brown for a few minutes

if it feels too dry, add a small amount more of grease so it is

smooth and stirrable

Stir in 3 cups of milk

You should not see any lumpy or pasty areas

( I use almost 1/2 gallon of milk for my family)

Allow to cook, stirring constantly until it is thick and bubbly.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

If it gets too thick, you can add a small splash of milk and stir

Serve with buttered biscuits

Tools, tools and more tools

Today we are going to talk about the appropriate tools for measuring when cooking. It is really important for some recipies to be measured exactly in order for them to turn out properly.



This is a glass measuring cup. This particular one is a 2 cup measure, but they can come in many different sizes. They are also sometimes made out of plastic, but are always opaque-you will be able to see through them. These types of measuring cups are made to measure liquid.

Another liquid measuring cup. This set has 4 different cups. The largest measures 4 cups and the smallest measures in teaspoons and tablespoons. They are also slanted so you can see the measurement when you are standing up, instead of stooping to eyeball the measurement from the side. This set came from Pampered Chef, but you can get sets like them at many stores.

These two cups also come from Pampered Chef. The larger one measures up to 2 cups and the smaller one measures up to 1 cup. When the cup is turned the direction that the white one is, it measures liquides. When you turn it over like the pink one, it is used to measure solids. You then push the solid out by pushing the cup down, and there is very little waste of things like butter and shortening.

These measuring cups are used to measure solids and dry ingredients- shortening, butter, flour, sugar, oats... etc.

With this type of measuring cup, it is easy to fill it to the top and then level it off, making sure that you have the correct amount instead of a close approximation. These also come in both metal and plastic. I have seen them in ceramic. They come in measurements of 1/4 cup, 1/3 cup, 1/2 cup, 3/4 cup, 2/3 cup, 1 cup. Usually the 1 cup measure will also have marking for the other measurments on them as well.

These are the tools used to measure smaller measurements- teaspoon (tsp) and tablespoons (Tbsp). They also come in sets- usually 1/4 tsp, 1/2 tsp, 1 tsp, 1/2 Tbsp, 1 Tbsp. They also come in a variety of materials, usually metal or plastic, but I have seen them in ceramic as well. The red one is an adjustable measuring spoon, from 1/2 tsp to 1 Tbsp. I use it only for dry ingredients. I use the smallest of the Pampered Chef set to measure my tsp and Tbsp measurements of liquids.

In our next installment we will talk about bowls and pots and pans and perhaps knives. Then we will start cooking.