The Tomato Snob

I made a delicious and refreshing gazpacho. Problem being, it was delicious because I used homegrown, fresh out of my grandparent's garden, juicy sweet tomatoes. So, if you have 4 to 6 of these lying around, then make this super simple gazpacho!

Ingredients:
4 to 6 home or locally grown tomatoes, super ripe
2 red peppers
1 red onion
3 cloves garlic
1 jalapeno
1/4 cup good olive oil
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
Tomato juice (I only used about 12 ounces, but the original recipe called for 23. I like a really thick and chunky gazpacho, though)
Fresh ground salt and pepper
1 hot house cucumber

Roughly chop all of the vegetables. Get out your food processor! I processed the garlic, jalapeno, and onion together until they were all very finely minced. I did the peppers and tomatoes until they were chunky. Don't over process the tomatoes and peppers, because you want the gazpacho to have some texture to it. Combine all the vegetables in a bowl, along with the liquid ingredients. Salt and pepper to taste (probably about 1 tsp salt and 1/4 to 1/2 tsp pepper). Let stand in the refrigerator for a few hours before serving, so the flavors can mix.

Serve chilled on a hot summer day!

Delicious Southwestern Corn Chowder

Since I'm staying in New Mexico, my mom and I decided to make a southwestern style dish. And since it was snowing this morning, soup sounded great. We used a base recipe, but then made some changes. The most important being the substitution of New Mexico Green Chilies, which we roasted.

Here's the recipe:
3 tablespoons butter
1 small onion, chopped
3 cups fat-free chicken broth
2 cups fresh corn
2 potatoes, peeled and diced
1 New Mexico green chili, roasted
2 ribs celery, finely diced
2 cups low-fat milk
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese, plus more for garnish (we used sharp white cheddar)
1/2 tsp cumin
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (this made it fairly spicy, if you don't like spice, use 1/4)

Melt the butter in a large sauce pan. Toss in the onions and cook until tender, about five minutes. Stir in the chicken broth and all the vegetables. Bring to a simmer, cover, and cook until the potatoes are tender. About 5 minutes.

Puree two cups worth of the veggie mix, or briefly use an immersion blender, but don't over puree. The chunks really make the soup great.

Add the cheese, milk, and spices. Use fresh ground black pepper to taste. Bring back to a simmer, and allow to simmer until the soup is thick. About fifteen minutes. I served it with an additional cup of Cheddar cheese for garnish, which helped to cut some of the heat of the cayenne.

Overall, this was a really delicious soup. I was very happy with it. It's great for a cold wintry night!

Roasted Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese

It was finally that time of year! Time to make soup and grilled cheese sandwiches! This was my second attempt at a soup from scratch. I roasted the tomatoes myself, which was super easy. Here's the recipe I used for the soup:

www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/roasted-tomato-soup-recipe/index.html

I made a few little alterations. I added 1/4 tsp cayenne, for a little kick. And I also added about 2 tablespoons of rendered bacon fat, to make it savory and delicious. Because, lets be honest, bacon fat makes everything better. I used a good old counter top blender rather than a hand blender, and it worked out fine. I also recommend having a lot of fresh ground pepper on hand. It really helps balance the flavors.

For my grilled cheese, I used the following recipe:

www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/grilled-cheese-recipe/index.html

Yes. I used a recipe for grilled cheese. I wanted something a bit more than bread and cheese. I used my Foreman grill, which worked out AWESOME. That thing is so fabulous. If I make these sandwiches again, I'd actually use a combo of gruyere and cheddar. I think that would have played nicely with the bacon and apples. Oh, and I used plain dijon, but I think a hearty deli style mustard would have worked better. I remade them (sort of) a few days later and used a sweet and spicy mustard, and it was great.

Overall, both of these recipes were easy and crowd pleasing.

Fall Flavors!

For tonight I decided to celebrate the arrival of Fall with a meal highlighting some of my favorite fall flavors. I had fantastic assistance from friends, who brought lovely items. Particularly in the theme was Floren's pumpkin gnocchi, which paired nicely with the Butternut Cider Bisque.

The bisque was my first ever attempt at soup. I was really happy with how it turned out. Dean told me once that he enjoys making soup because you can't overcook it. The longer you cook it the better it gets. TRUE STORY! I was displeased with the consistency, so I just let it simmer. For a long time. And eventually it was thick and lovely. It needed salt and paper IMO, but I'm also a big fan of the salt and fresh ground pepper. It worked nicely for my guests, because I had a range of tastes at the table, and so everyone seasoned to their liking. But, overall, this soup was easy and delicious. Very nice fall flavor! The picture, as I'm sure you can figure out, is not of the soup. Because, well, it wasn't very exciting. So instead its a picture of my nice table setting. Nice...other than the one non-matching bowl. Because I only have six bowls. =(

Do I even have to tell you about the bacon wrapped dates? Bacon is delicious. Cream cheese is delicious. Almonds are delicious. Dates are...well...not as delicious as all those other things, but when you put those delicious other things in and around a date? Wow. Wow! Super easy, crowd pleasing appetizers. I cooked them longer than was called for, but that's because my bacon was a little thick (I had wrapped the bacon around more than once because I cut the pieces too long) and because I like crispy bacon. Very successful. Great if you need to bring something to a potluck. You'll be a star. And this pic is not cute, but they just came out of the oven, and trust me they tasted amazing.

Finally, the pork. Pork tenderloin is lovely, but I really had cook time issues with this recipe. I ended up cooking the pork for about 20 minutes rather than 10, and it still wasn't done! I sliced it and cooked it for a few more minutes, and that worked. It had fantastic flavor, though. The cranberry stuffing, which isn't really stuffing at all but more of a thick paste, smelled delicious and the pork really sucked in the tart and sweet combination of flavors. I traded out the cascabel powder for ancho, because, I'll be honest here, Cville grocery stores are not the place to find the fancy spices. Anyways, the substitution was fine. The strangest part of this recipe was the Chicken Sauce. I really don't know what that was for. But I will say, whatever this sauce was for, it had fabulous flavor! I think I'll try to make it a base for a hearty soup. Final note on this recipe is that the veggies were fine. Should have used butter, though. And, as always, more salt and pepper.

The most difficult part of this menu was that everything became super active at the same time. The cook times were all different, but it resulted in me doing a crazy amount of different things all at once. The soup needed to be run through the blender, the dates needed to be stuffed and wrapped, the veggies needed to come out of the oven, and the pork needed to be browned. All at the same time! Yikes! And I'm not really sure I could have avoided that. But I wrote out a schedule, and at least I knew what needed to happen next, which was really helpful in getting everything done. Didn't even come close to hitting my timeline, but the courses allowed me to get away with my timing issues.

The Menu:

Baked Brie: courtesy of Mario. Delish, really.

Bacon Wrapped Dates: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/bacon-wrapped-dates-stuffed-with-cream-cheese-and-almonds-recipe/index.html

Butternut Cider Bisque: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/cooking-live/butternut-cider-bisque-recipe/index.html

Pumpkin Gnocchi: courtesy of Floren. Awesome.

Roasted Pork Tenderloin with Cranberry Stuffing and Root Veggies: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/bobby-flay/roasted-pork-tenderloin-sun-dried-cranberry-stuffing-roasted-root-vegetables-recipe/index.html

Chocolate Lava Cakes with Peanut Butter Filling: OMG. Amazing. From Katie. http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/molten-chocolate-cake-with-peanut-butter-filling

One last thing. And this is really important. The food my friends brought was really excellent. Mario's baked brie was beautiful and delicious, and was devoured. Floren's gnocchi was an awesome addition that fit perfectly with the fall theme and tasted great with the soup. And Katie's dessert was...WOW. WOWOWOW. Not only was this a complicated dessert that she executed flawlessly, because the cakes had perfect consistency and were moist but held their shape nicely, Katie had ridiculously gorgeous plating. It was restaurant worthy. Five stars, Katie. Five stars. (Also, the way to win a fab review from me is to combine chocolate and peanut butter and make it warm and gooey. WIN!).

So, happy Fall everyone!