Creamy Tomato Basil Soup

I'm no stranger to stews, but soups, well, they can be a little intimidating.
Stews can be chunky, and you can just throw stuff in the pot and let it simmer long enough so that all the flavors blend. But in general, soup should be silky and smooth and have no chunks.

The first time I made tomato basil soup, I didn't strain out the tomato chunks and I was sorry for it. This time, I had learned my lesson and the result was a creamy, silky smooth soup with lots of flavor (and no chunks!).

Creamy Tomato Basil Soup

1 tbsp olive oil
1 can diced or crushed tomato (28 oz)
2 cups chicken broth
2-3 tbsp chopped basil
1/2 cup heavy cream or half&half
salt to taste


In a large pot over medium heat, heat olive oil.
Add the tomato and basil and simmer for a few minutes.
Add the chicken broth and simmer for another 5-6 minutes.
Remove from heat, and strain the soup through a sieve.
Add cream to strained soup and season with salt to taste.
Serve with basil garnish.


Note: don't throw away that tomato left in your strainer. You can use it as a sauce for pasta or as a dip for calzones.

Reese's Pieces Cookies

What a big difference there is in taste between homemade cookies and store-bought refrigerated cookie dough! I am guilty of buying pre-made dough for convenience, but you can't beat the taste of homemade cookies (when you don't confuse baking powder for baking soda in the recipe - I am also guilty of this).

This is a quick and easy recipe for homemade cookies. You can certainly substitute chocolate chips, M&Ms or whatever else your heart may desire, but I used Mini Reese's Pieces this time.

Basic Cookie Dough

1/2 cup butter
1/4 c white sugar
1/2 c brown sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
1 1/4 c AP flour (you could use half AP flour and half whole wheat pastry flour if you want to feel just a little better about eating cookies)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt


Preheat oven to 375F.

Cream butter and sugar with a mixer till fluffy.
Add egg and vanilla extract and mix well.
In another bowl, sift together flour, salt, and baking soda.
Mix flour mixture into butter mixture.
Add 1 cup chocolate chips, crumbled toffee, M&Ms, or whatever else you want.
Bake 10-12 minutes.

Chili Covered Watermelon Mexican Lollipop

I was out picking up parts at a warehouse today, and one of the counter guys, Eric, gave me a lollipop. So nice of him! Anyway, I wasn't quite ready to eat it yet so I popped it in my pocket and saved it for later.

A little later, I pulled the lollipop out of my pocket and was about to take off the wrapper to enjoy the sweet taste of fake watermelon flavor when I discovered that the lollipop was covered in spices. Errr...huh? Now I am familiar with mixing sweet with salty and spicy, but this was just kind of weird. It looked like chili powder and finely-ground oregano. So I set down the lollipop and walked away for awhile.

I came back, took a look at the label (it said Rebanaditas), took off the wrapper and stuck the candy in my mouth. And then took it right back out. I'm not going to say it was gross. But I will say that I threw it away.

Rival Seal-a-Meal™

My friend, Ange, gave me this Rival Seal-a-Meal vacuum food sealer as a gift last week, and I was really excited to try it out. I think within 3 minutes of her leaving my house I was hunting down something to seal. I'd never had a vacuum sealer before, so I was curious to find out how easy or hard, how useful or worthless this gadget would be.


The set-up is pretty easy. The Seal-a-Meal comes with a starter roll of bags. I cut the bag to my desired size (the instructions recommend cutting it large enough so that you have at least three inches between where your food will stop and where you will be sealing) and then I formed the end seal. This was done by closing the machine over the bag and pressing down until the machine heated and sealed the end.


Once the bag had an end, I put in my food. I'd bought a "value pack" of beef for pot roast and it seemed like the perfect candidate for vacuum-sealing. Leaving plenty of room on the unsealed end, I put the bag in (unsealed side) the machine and pressed down on both sides. It started vacuuming out air and the bag started shrinking a little. I could definitely see the thing working. It sucked out a little beef juice (or blood, if you want to be technical about it), but there's a removable drip tray where the blood collected. Within about a minute and a half, the food was vacuum-sealed. I was pretty impressed! There were a few air pockets, but I've decided that this happens when your bag is big.


I've experimented with lots of different types of food, and it seems like the more you fill your bag or the lumpier it is, the more air pockets you'll have. All in all, this is a pretty handy gadget. I've been using it to seal prepared meals so that they keep for several days. You might call me a sealing fool. I cut up uncooked potatoes into small cubes, sealed them and froze them for my potato hash. I made a mixed grill over the weekend and sealed that too. I even thought about vacuum-sealing a bag of ice for the cooler, but the ice tray was empty...


I also found out that the bags are reusable. To reuse a bag, cut both sealed ends and wash the bag out thoroughly. Then just reseal one end, put your food in, vacuum, and seal.


My only complaint, and it's more of a suggestion than a complaint, is that the Seal-a-Meal website doesn't have any information on reheating. The site has recipes for foods you could prepare and seal, but that's where the information stops. If it were up to me, I would have instructions on how to reheat prepared meals. For example, if you vacuum-seal cooked rice, could you drop the bag in boiling water to reheat? Or if you have sealed grilled meat (which I did), can you put the whole thing in the microwave (plastic and all), or do you need to puncture the bag? I guess I will have to conduct my own experiments. I have a tendency to buy in bulk to save money, and then I end up throwing a lot of stuff away. I have a feeling I'll be wasting a lot less food now.

Mixed Grill

I found a great recipe for a marinade to make a mixed grill.

I marinated chicken breast, bell peppers, and corn in this marinade. I grilled the sausage as is because smoked sausage is delicious as it is.

Marinade:
Juice of 5 lemons
2 tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley
3 garlic cloves
crushed red pepper flakes
salt


I marinated the chicken in a bag separate from the vegetables and marinated them for about an hour. Grill till cooked, allow to rest, slice and serve!

Chinese Sticky Rice (Nuo mi fan)

This is a dish that I can't remember having for the first time. If you asked my sister or me to make this for you, we wouldn't have to break out the recipe book (although I did cheat and call my mom to ask her how much water to use). Sticky rice is something that was always around when our grandparents in Taiwan would have people over. And even after we moved here, my mom would always make this for any special occasions. Today wasn't a special occasion, but I think my spirits needed a little pick-me-up. Nostalgia and food did the trick.

A couple of ingredients in this dish that you may not have on hand: dried shiitake mushrooms and sweet rice. No, you can't substitute regular rice. It won't be sticky! You can find it in any Asian market. Same with the shiitake mushrooms.

The recipe:
4-5 dried shiitake mushrooms (rehydrated in warm water for at least 30 minutes)
2 tbsp canola oil (or vegetable oil)
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
4-6 oz thinly sliced pork (a pork chop would do)
2 cups sweet rice
2 cups water
1/4 cup soy sauce
salt

In a large pan, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook for a couple of minutes. Add the pork and cook for about 2-3 minutes (or till cooked through). Slice the rehydrated mushrooms and add them to the pan. Reserve the water.
Add the rice to the pan and cook for 4-5 minutes, stirring often.
Add about 1/2 cup of water to the pan and stir till the rice has soaked in the water.
Continue to add 1/2 cup of water till you've used up all 2 cups.
Add in the soy sauce and stir through.

Now here is where my method differs from my mom's; mostly from necessity:

Transfer the rice mixture to a pot and stir in 1 cup of the mushroom water. Turn heat down to med-low and cook until the rice has cooked through (about 20 minutes).

Normally, I would have put this into the rice cooker after I incorporated the two cups of water, but my B&D rice cooker wanted to tell me it was done cooking long before the rice was cooked.

Serve with soy sauce and garnish with chopped green onions, if you like.

Note: As I was making this, I thought about how similar this dish is to Italian risotto. The method is similar, and even the traditional pairing of the rice with mushroom is similar. The Italians have a lot to thank the Chinese for.

Double-Berry Cooler

I found this recipe in my BHG 2005 Annual Recipes book.

2 envelopes unflavored gelatin
1/2 c sugar
4 cups ginger ale
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 cups blueberries (or blackberries)
2 cups small whole strawberries (halved)

In a medium saucepan, stir together gelatin and sugar. Add 1 cup of ginger ale.
Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, about 5 minutes or till gelatin dissolves.
Remove from heat. Slowly stir in remaining ginger ale.
Spoon blueberries into a 2-qt glass bowl or straight-sided container (I used small glasses).
Add half the gelatin mixture. Cover and refrigerate for about 2 hours, or until set.
After an hour of chilling, in a medium bowl stir together strawberries and remaining gelatin-juice mixture.
Cover and chill one hour or just till partially set.
Spoon strawberry mixture on set blueberry mixture. Cover and refrigerate 3-4 hours or until set.
Makes 8-10 servings.

Notes:
I halved the recipe. And I forgot to cut the strawberries (which was no big deal).

Instead of waiting and layering, I just mixed the berries together and added the gelatin mixture which is why my fruits floated. I'm pretty sure this did not affect the flavor though it isn't as impressive as layers.

I thought this recipe was a little too sweet. It needed more acidity. If I were going to make this again, I would use blackberries and less sugar.

My fatal flaw: I wasn't patient and I didn't cook the gelatin mixture for the full 5 minutes, so the result was grainy gelatin. The lesson learned here: be patient and thoroughly dissolve the gelatin.