Tomato Soup

Foodie Beth wrote a comment yesterday, asking what to do with all her summer tomatoes.  Wanted to share my answer and a pix she sent me!  I suggested Tomato-Basil soup to eat now (serve cold) and freeze extra for the winter (served warm with all your summer memories).  Here's the recipe:

3 Lbs tomatoes, cut in half

1/4 cup Olive Oil
1 Teaspoon freshly ground pepper
6 Garlic Cloves, minced
2 Tbs. butter
1/4 Tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
28 ounces tomatoe puree
4 Cups basil leaves
1 Teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
1 Quart Chicken Stock (never broth!)
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Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Toss tomatoes with olive oil, salt and pepper. Spread on baking sheet and roast (about 1/2 hour). In stockpot, saute garlic with abit of olive oil, butter and red pepper flakes. Add puree, basil, thymeand stock. Add oven-roasted tomatoes, including any liquid on sheet pan. Brin to a boil and simmer for 40 minutes. Puree in a food processor or blender. Serve cold, in the summer and hot, in the winter.

Foodie Beth's Tomato Soup

salad and sandwich nite!

I think the sandwich is under-rated for dinner! Now mind you, I am not talking about peanut butter and jelly on white bread.  I'm talking PANINI!!!  Now that is a sandwich that is dinner worthy.  The panini can be as healthy as you want, use up any left-overs, and can be "tweeked" to each family member's taste. 

Tonight's dinner:   Grilled Cheese Panini and Fridge Salad

Fridge Salad-Whatever I have in the fridge (real original, huh?).  Tonight it is red leaf lettuce, chopped up with avocado, halved cherry tomatoes, shredded parmesan cheese all sprinkled with freshly ground black pepper and my vinegrette. 

The vinegrette-2 glugs (professional cooking term) of balsalmic vinegar, 1 glug (I'm watching my fat intake) of olive oil, 1/2 dollup (another professional cooking term) of dijon mustard, all whisked together.  YUMM but any salad dressing on hand is fine.

Grilled Cheese Panini-the secret is the bread!  Crusty and chewy (I used a Tuscany bread I had bought at the store) with slices of your favorite cheese.  Grill in a panini press,george foreman grill, or my absolute fav kitchen appliance: the cuisenart griddler.  Isn't my pix funny?  It looks like a tongue is sticking out at you.   That's the cheese,oozing out, waiting to meet YOUR tongue.  hahaha

Fridge Salad

Grilled Cheese Panini

                                    

Quick and Easy

So today I was running around with my son, getting my excercise on....playing tennis with him.  We were out and about and didn't have a whole lot of time to make an elaborate dinner.  So tonight I grilled steaks, baked sweet potatoe fries, micro-waved corn on the cob and...goofed around with making garlic bread.  Here's what I did with the garlic bread:  I combined room temperature garlic butter (already made which I bought at Whole Foods) with a dollup (yes, a dollup) of tomatoe paste.  I like to have the tube of tomatoe paste in the fridge so if I only want a little, it keeps and I don't feel like I waste any.  Anyhow, I mixed those two ingredients then spread it lightly, over sliced french bread.  I "grilled" them on my Cuisenart Griddler (which I LOVE!)  They were quite delicious.  The tomatoe paste added a nice little surprise to it.  Here's a pix:

Grilled Garlic Bread

chicken and shrimp stir fry

So last night, we had some take out (hey, it was Saturday night) from the chinese restaurant.  Yummy sushi, which of course we gobbled down right away...and some stir fry green beans, and a pu pu platter.  I love that word: pu pu. HAHA.  Well, we have lots of green beans left over, so I will be making a stirfry chicken and shrimp and use the left over beans and left over rice.  Easy shmeasy!