What's For Dinner? Tomato-Basil Soup

I love sharing a good, easy weeknight dinner recipe, and last night I made a great one. I love Tomato-Basil soup, but I've never ventured to make it myself. I saw this recipe in Cooking Light and knew I had to try it. Quick aside, I believe I've mentioned this before, but I love Cooking Light magazine! The recipes in it aren't diet recipes where they completely leave out all the good stuff, they simply offer lighter ways to cook delicious meals. I highly recommend them.

So below and linked you'll find the recipe I followed for last night's Tomato-Basil soup. Everything it called for was easily found at my grocery store, though I imagine the canned fire-roasted tomatoes might be difficult to find in a small-town grocer. Next time, I will likely raid my mother-in-law's garden for basil as the package I bought at the store was barely enough for the full 3/4 cup of chopped basil used in the recipe. My whole family loved both the soup and the asiago cheese bread that we enjoyed as both a side and as croutons in the soup. This is an great weeknight recipe as it only took about 30-40 minutes for the whole thing. It was touted in the magazine's 20-Minute Cooking section, but let's face it, most of those claims are only true if you have a prep chef or actually buy things like pre-chopped onion--and who does that? Not me. Still, there was minimal prep involved, but things did get a little hectic as I was trying to stay on top of the soup without burning the bread in the forget-about-it-for-more-than-a-minute-and-you-burn-it broiler (and I did).

Photo and recipe copyright Cooking Light magazine.

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 1/2 cups prechopped onion
• 3 garlic cloves, chopped
• 3/4 cup chopped fresh basil
• 1 (28-ounce) can fire-roasted diced tomatoes, undrained
• 1/2 cup (4 ounces) 1/3-less-fat cream cheese, cut into cubes
• 2 cups 1% low-fat milk
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 12 (1/2-inch-thick) slices French bread
• Cooking spray
• 1 garlic clove, halved
• 1 ounce shredded Asiago cheese

Preparation

1. Preheat broiler to high.
2. Heat olive oil in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion; sauté 3 minutes. Stir in garlic; cook for 1 minute. Add basil and tomatoes; bring to a boil. Stir in cheese until melted. Place mixture in blender, and blend until smooth. Return to pan; stir in milk, salt, and pepper. Return to medium-high; cook 2 minutes.
3. Place bread on baking sheet; lightly coat with spray. Broil 1 minute. Rub garlic over toasted side; turn bread over. Top with Asiago; broil 1 minute.

Enjoy!

Ode to Thanksgiving - Part 3

Just a quick post because I promised to share one last recipe I made over the Thanksgiving weekend: Fried Confetti Corn. It was delicious, of course, because it had bacon. Need I say more? The confetti part is red and green peppers for beautiful color, plus onions for flavor and a little cream cheese for creaminess. I brought it to my family's Thanksgiving dinner, so I put it in a Crock Pot to keep it warm. Delish!

What's for dinner tonight, you (don't) ask? Chicken Taco Chili in the Crock Pot...thanks Pinterest! It's actually a Weight Watchers recipe. I'll let you know how it tastes, but it looks amazing!!

Ode to Thanksgiving - Part 2

Well dear readers (Mom & Dad), I just finished making the ugliest batch of cakeballs ever. Red velvet cake with white chocolate is not a very forgiving combination, so once the cakeballs start to crumble a bit in the chocolate, it all becomes a pink mess. I started out dipping them in almond bark, which was a new ingredient to me. Did you know that if you add a little milk to almond bark to try and thin the product it completely ruins the whole batch? Yeah, it says so right there on the packaging if you actually read it. I didn't. Dumped that part down the sink. Next, I was able to gather up some pieces of leftover white chocolate that I had in my baking cabinet. Still thick, but wiser this time, I added shortening as directed. That worked alright, but it wasn't enough, so I finished off with some semi-sweet chocolate. They'll probably be gross. So much for my husband's birthday request. I'm a cakeball virgin, so tell me, are they normally this ugly and difficult?

Next, I did a little night-before pre-prep for the Confetti Omelette Casserole I'm making in the morning. Just cooking the sausage and chopping some onion. If I was smart, I would always have some chopped onion in my fridge. It would save me a lot of prep time for all those times when my sous chef has the night off. If I was lazy, I'd buy frozen chopped onion. Probably not gonna happen.

So, Confetti Omelette Casserole is a favorite in the Rose household. You use Egg Beaters and add bacon or sausage, cheese, pimentos, onion and parsley (for color). It's very pretty and festive for the holidays, but as egg casseroles go, it takes awhile to cook, so it's good to do some stuff ahead of time when you can. As an extra bonus, it keeps well, so you can have it for breakfast for a couple days. Oh, and a word of warning, do not add any salt as directed in the recipe. Bacon and sausage are both such salty meats that any added salt is just over the top. And to give credit where credit is due, this is yet another Southern Living recipe...shocker.

I've got plenty more cooking ahead of me tomorrow, so I need to get some rest, but this leads me to the one thing I don't like about this time of year...my husband's job. As a .com buyer for a big retailer, Thanksgiving Day is the equivalent of Black Friday and because in the online world there aren't store associates to handle any glitches that come up, he has to handle it. His conference calls start at midnight tonight and pick up again around 6 am. He'll have another at 6 pm tomorrow (yes, right in the middle of Thanksgiving dinner) and more of the same on Friday. Oh, and to add to that Friday is his birthday. Happy freakin' birthday--now get back to work. Poor guy.

To the rest of you who don't have to work tomorrow, Happy freakin' Thanksgiving. I mean, Happy Thanksgiving!

Ode to Thanksgiving - Part 1

This is my absolute favorite week of the year. Food, visiting with family, food, shopping, food, you get the idea. I love Christmas too with all the spirit and festivities, but Thanksgiving is just so much more simple. It's so easy to lose sight of the spirit of Christmas during a crazy search for those last two gifts and trying not to stress about going over budget, but at Thanksgiving we simply get to enjoy food, family, friends and reflect on the blessings in our lives.

I love the feel of this week. Back when I was a Trophy Wife/working woman (because I've ALWAYS been a Trophy Wife), I loved that it was a short, typically slow work week. Now I like just being out and about and enjoying the vacation feel that is everywhere. The mood is light. For me, the most complicated part is figuring out when I'll have time to cook everything I want to cook for our different gatherings.

So, for my Ode to Thanksgiving, I will be sharing with you all the yummies I'll be making this week. Beginning with the Thanksgiving week kick off meal I made last night...Thanksgiving Casserole. I got the recipe from friend (she is married to one of my very good friends from high school) and fellow blogger, Camila Knowles. You can find the recipe on her blog, Mattornety Life. You can probably guess, but Thanksgiving Casserole involves chicken or turkey and stuffing. There are plenty of other ingedients, but those are the main flavors and really, need I say more? I made it last night and it looked like this:

Delicious! I've made it twice and I add about a cup of Craisins to the mix, just to make it extra Thanksgiving-y, but we decided last night we might have to try and add something with a bit of crunch next time. Perhaps sliced almonds or even just some lightly sauteed celery. I usually try to make it a little lighter on calories by decreasing the amount of butter I use and using low fat cream of mushroom and mayo, but even with those modifications, this is not a Weight Watchers-approved meal.

I WILL be posting more this week. Here are a few more recipes you can look forward to hearing about this week:

• Classic Scalloped Potatoes (from Southern Living magazine)
• Confetti Corn (also from Southern Living)
• Red Velvet Cake Balls
• Confetti Egg Casserole (yes, I'm making two things with "Confetti" in the name)

Is your mouth watering yet? What are you cooking this week? Or, what are you looking forward to eating this week?

Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Cake

I tried to think of a different title for this post, but really, what's more enticing than that? With the last weekend of summer approaching, I thought I'd share this great summer recipe.

First of all, you should know that I am a HUGE fan of Southern Living magazine, and Cooking Light is a close second. Pretty much every dish I make for special occasions and not-so-special occasions comes from one of these two magazines. Need proof?

Brown Sugar Cinnamon Peach Pie (July 2011)

Lucious Spice Cake with Citrus Filling (December 2010)

Some kind of coconut cake (c. January 2011) 

I am a true Southern lady even though I was technically born in the Midwest, never wear big hats, and can't pull off saying "ain't" even if I'm trying to be funny or dramatic. I appreciate all things Southern, so seeing this magazine appear in the mailbox alway puts a big smile on my face.

I made this recipe a few weeks ago and got rave reviews from my family. I'm kind of bummed I didn't take a picture of it. Don't be deterred by the fact that this is actually three recipes in one, it really came together quickly (aside from 8 hours of freezer time, which I condensed into about 4--not recommended). The cake recipe is so good I'll be using it for other chocolate cakes in the future. Oh, and never fear, ganache is fancy for microwaved chocolate and cream that come together to make a delicious chocolate topping that hardens in just a minute. Without further ado...

Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Cake
(from Southern Living, August 2011)

(Photo copyright Southern Living magazine)

Ingredients

• Parchment paper
• Devil's Food Cake Batter
• 1/2 gal. mint chocolate chip ice cream, softened
• 10 chocolate wafers, coarsely crushed
• Chocolate Ganache
• Garnishes: sweetened whipped cream, thin crème de menthe chocolate mints

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350º. Grease and flour 3 (8-inch) round cake pans. Line with parchment paper. Prepare Devil's Food Cake Batter, and spoon into pans.
2. Bake at 350º for 12 to 14 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans on a wire rack 10 minutes. Remove from pans to wire racks, peel off parchment paper, and cool completely (about 1 hour).
3. Place 1 cake layer in a 9-inch springform pan. Top with one-third of ice cream (about 2 1/3 cups); sprinkle with half of crushed wafers. Repeat layers once. Top with remaining cake layer and ice cream. Freeze 8 to 12 hours.
4. Remove cake from springform pan, and place on a cake stand or plate. Prepare Chocolate Ganache, and spread over top of ice-cream cake. Let stand 15 minutes before serving. Garnish, if desired.

If you haven't learned this already, the first rule of cooking (according to me) is always read the entire recipe first. When you don't, you get started on a delicious meal for your friends that are coming over in two hours, then get to a step that says "Refrigerate 4 hours." Doh! I didn't exactly do that with this recipe, but I didn't allow myself enough time to let it freeze (I did 4-5 hours, it called for 8-12) and it wasn't as hard as it was supposed to be. Even with that little setback, it was delicious!

I'll leave you with this thought...which is a better flavor combination? Chocolate and mint OR chocolate and peanut butter? It's a toss up for me. Leave me your thoughts in the comments.