While in Chicago Jerri and I grabbed a bite to eat at Nordstroms one day and had the most yummy Tomato-Basil soup. I thought to myself, surely I can make this at home, how hard can it be? We grew tomatoes and basil this year and I have tons of both. So I hunted down a recipe to try and the ingredients have been sitting in my pantry and refrigerator for a week or so. Last night was dance night so I thought I would make the soup ahead of time, leave it in the crockpot while we were gone and come home to some yummy homemade soup.
The soup did taste pretty darn good but making it was quite an adventure .....
The recipe called for 4 large tomatoes - some of mine were small so I used 5. I got them diced and simmering in the 4 cups of tomato juice. I couldn't simmer them the full 30 minutes as I was, of course, running a tad behind schedule. But I figured it would be OK since I was going to put it in the crockpot anyway. Time to puree the tomatoes and juice with the basil. So I dump everything in the Cuisinart. It splashes a little but that's ok. I turn on the Cuisinart and tomatoes go everywhere. I filled the food processor way too full and it is coming up and out the lid and running all over my counter. I haven't even put the basil in yet! So I try to simply pulse the tomatoes. This works fairly well. I decide to pour the mess into the crockpot using a strainer and then puree the basil with the heavy cream and then add that to the crockpot. I lift up my food processor bowl and again - tomatoes go everywhere. Since it had overflowed, there was tomato puree in the column where you attach the blade and it ran out everywhere when I lifted the bowl. It was beginning to look like a CRIME SCENE in my kitchen and we had to leave for dance in 5 minutes. I am trying to make the best of it, cleaning up what I can with paper towels since I don't want to stain any of my dish cloths and yelling at Audrey to get dressed for dance and yelling at Amy to pack whatever she wants to take to the dance studio to amuse herself while we wait for Audrey. I actually got it fairly well cleaned and managed to throw most of the incriminating dishes into the dishwasher and set it to run while we were gone.
Like I said, the soup turned out pretty good, a little chunkier than I would like, but quite yummy. If I make it again I think I will change a few things. ONE- I will either make a half batch or I will get one of those little handheld blender things (ooo! this one is on SALE!!!) so I can puree the tomatoes and basil right there on the stovetop or in the crockpot. TWO-I will use real butter. I used a 50/50 blend and you could see the oil rising to the top of the soup. I don't think it effected the taste but it wasn't very pretty. THREE - I will have a loaf of french bread or something similar to serve with it. Both David and I agreed that warm crusty bread to dip in it would have been perfect!
So while it was a huge mess it turned out OK and I have leftovers that I can have for lunch today. Really the only bad thing, I made such a mess on the floor and my dear sweet hubby did mop that up for me after dinner BUT now the rest of the floor looks pretty bad in comparison so I will be mopping the kitchen and family room today ..... I tried to get out of it. I asked Amy what she wanted to do today and she said she wanted to play fun games at home. I suggested we play pretend and she could be Cinderella and I would be the wicked stepmother and she could mop the floors. Funny, she didn't want to play that ...... hmmmmm ........
The soup did taste pretty darn good but making it was quite an adventure .....
The recipe called for 4 large tomatoes - some of mine were small so I used 5. I got them diced and simmering in the 4 cups of tomato juice. I couldn't simmer them the full 30 minutes as I was, of course, running a tad behind schedule. But I figured it would be OK since I was going to put it in the crockpot anyway. Time to puree the tomatoes and juice with the basil. So I dump everything in the Cuisinart. It splashes a little but that's ok. I turn on the Cuisinart and tomatoes go everywhere. I filled the food processor way too full and it is coming up and out the lid and running all over my counter. I haven't even put the basil in yet! So I try to simply pulse the tomatoes. This works fairly well. I decide to pour the mess into the crockpot using a strainer and then puree the basil with the heavy cream and then add that to the crockpot. I lift up my food processor bowl and again - tomatoes go everywhere. Since it had overflowed, there was tomato puree in the column where you attach the blade and it ran out everywhere when I lifted the bowl. It was beginning to look like a CRIME SCENE in my kitchen and we had to leave for dance in 5 minutes. I am trying to make the best of it, cleaning up what I can with paper towels since I don't want to stain any of my dish cloths and yelling at Audrey to get dressed for dance and yelling at Amy to pack whatever she wants to take to the dance studio to amuse herself while we wait for Audrey. I actually got it fairly well cleaned and managed to throw most of the incriminating dishes into the dishwasher and set it to run while we were gone.
Like I said, the soup turned out pretty good, a little chunkier than I would like, but quite yummy. If I make it again I think I will change a few things. ONE- I will either make a half batch or I will get one of those little handheld blender things (ooo! this one is on SALE!!!) so I can puree the tomatoes and basil right there on the stovetop or in the crockpot. TWO-I will use real butter. I used a 50/50 blend and you could see the oil rising to the top of the soup. I don't think it effected the taste but it wasn't very pretty. THREE - I will have a loaf of french bread or something similar to serve with it. Both David and I agreed that warm crusty bread to dip in it would have been perfect!
So while it was a huge mess it turned out OK and I have leftovers that I can have for lunch today. Really the only bad thing, I made such a mess on the floor and my dear sweet hubby did mop that up for me after dinner BUT now the rest of the floor looks pretty bad in comparison so I will be mopping the kitchen and family room today ..... I tried to get out of it. I asked Amy what she wanted to do today and she said she wanted to play fun games at home. I suggested we play pretend and she could be Cinderella and I would be the wicked stepmother and she could mop the floors. Funny, she didn't want to play that ...... hmmmmm ........
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