Feb. 5, 2010

9 am

2 slices of wheat toast with Nutella

12:30 pm

grilled cheese (American cheese, sauteed onions on wheat)

tomato soup

1 can of Diet Pepsi

More recipes! With the leftover ingredients from Wednesday’s chicken paprikash, I made tomato soup.

Tomato soup recipe

– Find some good quality tomatoes. Roma or heirlooms tastes the best for this. Coat it with olive oil, salt and pepper on a baking sheet, and roast it in a 400 degree oven for, well, until it smells good. Maybe 20-30 minutes? You can remove the tomato skins beforehand by blanching, but it’s a pain in the ass and easier to do it after cooking, I think. When it’s done cooking, reserve a few tomatoes for later.

– Saute diced onions and 1/2 a clove of crushed garlic in a pot over low heat until it’s sweated.

– Dump a can of tomatoes in the pot of vegetables, juice, most of the roasted tomatoes and it’s cooking juice, and equal parts chicken or vegetables stock. Add basil, thyme and whatever other herbs you want. Definitely add chili powder. Simmer away for about 40 minutes.

– It’s time to blend your soup. The easiest way is to get a wand blender, stick it in the pot, and blend the crap out of it. Work that thing around the pot like your old lady does with her vibrator. I find this one of the most enjoyable things to do in cooking, liquidating stuff. You think you can hide from my blender in that pot, errant piece of onion? Die! You cannot escape the hand of fate that is my Cuisinart.

– If you don’t have a wand blender, you can use a food processor or that blender you use for margaritas. But BE CAREFUL. Blending hot liquid is dangerous. Start at a slow speed, a small batch at a time and blend uncovered. If you blend too fast and don’t allow an outlet for heat to escape, then KABLOOEY! Your kitchen is going to look like Sharon Tate’s residence after Charlie Manson romped through.

– After blending, stir in some cream and the reserved roasted tomatoes, chopped into pieces. Season to taste.

– I like to chiffonade some basil on top because it not only tastes good, it also looks pretty sophisticated and will impress your lady friend(s). It’s pretty easy to do. Take some basil leaves, roll it up tight, get a pair of scissors, and snip crosswise into thin strips. If you can roll a joint, then you can chiffonade basil.

Note: Here’s a cheap recipe for homemade tomato soup: Empty one jar of tomato sauce into pot and 3/4 jar of stock. Season, throw in herbs and bring to a simmer for 30-40 minutes. Add cream and more herbs at the end. Throw out Prego jar before anyone sees it and tell your significant that you made it from scratch.

I omitted the roasted tomatoes in my serving because I didn’t have fresh ones. And I used sour cream at the end which I did have left over and ended up working out well. And there you go, tomato soup that’s much tastier than the menstrual crap that is Campbell’s. I had extra sauteed onions so I stuck it in the grilled cheese with a little bit of mustard. I can give you a recipe for grilled cheese, but if you don’t know how to make one, then as Rahm Emanuel once called liberals, you’re “retarded.”

8:30 pm

chicken nuggets

1/2 box of Kraft mac n’ cheese

side spinach salad with goat cheese and grapes

1 20 pz. bottle of Squirt

5 Oreo cookies

Due to rain which pales in comparison to the East Coast snowstorm but I’ll complain about anyway, Abigail and I stayed indoors, ate junk food and watched an Oscar screener of “The Blind Side.” Since I have a ton of chicken nuggets left and will probably eat it the next day, I’ll reserve pictures and a post about this meal for tomorrow.