What I'm Cooking This Week
Tracy
Yesss! It's finally soup time!
I had to giggle when I saw that in my last post I commented that it was still 80 degrees out, and that was just a couple of weeks ago. Well, now the temps are around 35 in the mornings at the kids' bus stop and only getting up to around mid-fifties by midday. Our weather seriously needs some bi-polar meds. But, that's what they say about this part of Carolina--don't like the weather? Then wait a couple of hours!
The thermometer's dive below 60 brought me immense joy, because I seriously could not wait to make some creamy tomato soup. Dawn and I had a wonderful tomato bisque recently at a local frou-frou lunch spot (there were no crayons on the table so that qualifies as frou-frou. K?). It was so decadent and full of creamy, buttery goodness that a small bowl was really just enough. Oh, and we did each have a ho-hum side salad that totally paled in comparison to the soup. They really shouldn't have bothered. Especially since it was $8.95 worth of ho-hum.
ANYWAY. I digress---I love digressing. It would be so great if digressing burned calories.
This recipe was concocted from a combination of ingredients from bisque and soup recipes from allrecipes.com and cooks.com. The only things I really changed were the amount of onion (most called for a whole chopped onion but I don't like hunks of onion in my mater soup, thanks) and the amount of sugar, which I also reduced. The result is not quite as thick as a bisque, but not quite as thin as soup, either. Hybrids, on many levels, are often a wonderful thing!
Creamy Tomato Soup with Sherry
You'll need:
1 can petite-diced tomatoes
1/2 stick butter
About 1/4 of an onion, finely minced
1 48-oz bottle tomato juice
1 pint heavy cream (yes, go ahead and walk on the wild side and use the whole pint- - you'll thank me later!)
1/2 cup sherry or a little more to taste
1-2 tsp sugar
salt and fresh black pepper
About 2-3 tbsp chopped fresh parsley (optional)
Melt the butter in the bottom of a heavy soup pot or dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onion and stir around for a minute or two just until soft. Add diced tomatoes and the sugar (just enough to cut the acidity of the tomatoes a little). Stir just until the sugar dissolves, then pour in the tomato juice. Bring to a simmer , pour in the sherry and then remove from the heat.
Then---and here's the fun, dangerous part. Draw the blinds, lock the door and stir in every bit of that luscious cream. Finish with a little salt and pepper to taste, and garnish with a little chopped parsley if you have it on hand.
Serve with big hunks of cheesy garlic bread or some seedy crackers with some creamy brie. Oh, and go unlock the door and invite some friends! This luscious soup was meant to be shared.
Hey, Dawn---This would make an awesome starter to the big Thanksgiving meal that you somehow always end up hosting. Or, it could be a nice day-after meal when no one can bear to look at the gobbler! And by that I mean the turkey, not Mr. NTM. Hee! It's not even noon and I have amused myself. . .
and guess what? i'm hosting again this year! so your soup recipe looks especially divine. i am so going to try it. laughing at the listing of sherry in your ingredient list..."1/2 cup or a little more to taste". two bottles and a straw and a little more to taste is what i'll be doing by the end of thanksgiving day!
what i did this week
dawn
tracy, can we have just one more look at halloween? a year from now is such a long wait.
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