Roasted Tomato Vegetable Soup

5 med. tomatoes

1 lg. onion

2 carrots

3 stalks celery (save tops for later)

1 bulb of garlic

2 yellow mini peppers

1/3 lg. poblano pepper

single source EVOO

fresh ground black pepper

a tiny bit of cayenne pepper

garlic-parsley salt

Wash and dry all the vegetables. Cut the rest of the vegetables as shown. Drizzle with EVOO and sprinkle on the seasonings.

Roast at 400° for 25 minutes, checking and moving the vegetables a couple times. Cool until they're touchable, then peel the tomatoes and pop the garlic cloves out of their paper shells. Put all the vegetables residual oil and liquid into a 4 quart soup pot. The vegetables never actually roasted or charred due to the high moisture content. Stewing would be more accurate! The soup was still really good though.

Add the broth, celery tops and bay leaves. Simmer everything together for about a half hour. 

24oz. vegetable broth or chicken bone broth

chopped celery tops

3 bay leaves

Remove the bay leaves, then smooth everything out with your immersion blender. Taste and make any seasoning adjustments. If it tastes too acidic, add 1-2t sugar. Let this cool a bit then stir in about 1c of sour cream -optional- or leave it just as is.

This would be nice with a grilled cheese sandwich or homemade parmesan croutons. . .Lin

A Southwest-Curried-Up Chowder Revision

When I'm making food, especially for others, I never want to run out with hungry people wanting more. Years ago, back in my late '20's, in charge of coordinating our church's potluck dinners. I delegated for a while, until I realized not everyone had the same food philosophy as mine. A woman I asked to do the main course seriously underplanned. I was horrified. When I approached her, she said, 'They won't starve, there are other things they can eat.' Well, this was the only hot dish and we had enough to serve about half of the people 😟 From then on, she was in charge of finding volunteers to help with kitchen clean-up, after our dinners. When leading people, it's important to observe note their weaknesses and build on their strengths.

There is a downside to this however. Often I'll make way too much of something. Then, so it doesn't go to waste, I often combine it with my dogs' dry food. They love this 'downside!' This chowder has garlic and onion, so that can't happen. Yesterday I had surprise visitors for lunch so I added a can of diced tomatoes to give it a little color and change the flavor up a bit. I didn't realize how much it needed more seasoning however. It was really bland. This morning, I still have a couple quarts left. . .Hmmm, what to do?

I've mentioned before, how by changing the texture and or the flavor palette a bit, can turn anything into something totally new and different. That's what I'm doing this morning. I wanted to add heat, nuttiness, warm spice, smokiness, lemon and coconut. This is the chowder I posted 5 recipes below. In addition to yesterday's tomatoes, this morning I added: 

1T curry powder

1T ground cumin

1/2T Arizona chipotle blend

1t Penzeys Trinidad

1-2t pumpkin pie spice

...salt-lemon-garlic-cloves+ginger

1T frozen, finely-chopped lemongrass

2/3c natural, organic peanut butter 

1 can coconut milk

1 baked, peeled, sweet potato

Stir, then cover and simmer on low until everything is quietly bubbling, for just a few minutes. Hit it with your immersion blender, let simmer on low again for 5 minutes. Check flavors and add whatever is needed: brown sugar? more pepper? ginger? salt? etc.

Since the soup base of this new creation is a couple days old, be sure it comes to a good simmer each time you serve it. It will only keep a few more days. For breakfast today, I had a bowl with a sprinkle of smokey paprika, dots of sour cream sauce, a little dry dill and some macadamia nuts 😁 

Be Creative, try something new when you're bored with a recipe. You eat every day - so - dust off that kitchen - COOK - Have fun with it! . 😁 . .Lin