Foodie Wynn

I wasn’t thinking and didn’t snap a photo, but it isn’t hard to imagine what they look like. Like a lot of my meals this one an improvisation and pretty much has infinite possibilities. 

Ingredients:
1 can of biscuits(flaky would probably be better, but I used homestyle)
Pesto 
1 jar of Roasted Red Peppers in oil
Shredded Cheese(I used an Italian blend by Sargento)

Preheat oven to the temp on the biscuit can
Grease a baking sheet and/or sprinkle corn meal 
Press out biscuits on baking sheet
Spoon out pesto onto biscuits and spread around
Place roasted red peppers on biscuits
Sprinkle cheese over the pizzas
Bake pizzas according to can, but I had to add a few extra minutes 

I was kind of surprised at how tasty these were. Roasted Red Peppers are very quickly becoming one of my favorite ingredients. Baking them again made them even more sweet and marrying it with pesto is such a great flavor combination. I hope you enjoy this dish. I know I did.

I’m FoodieWife.  FoodieWynn has allowed me to guest blog because I made a tomato soup that he claims is far superior to his.  Scroll down for the recipe.  Please make modifications as you wish.  If you find something good, comment and let us know!  Since two of the three current recipe posts are tomato soup related, I’m sure you can tell we are tomato soup enthusiasts.

The best thing about making this soup was that I may have accidentally solved a mystery for my mom.  Her father (who passed away before I was born) made amazing tomato soup.  He never taught her to make it and she has tried to recreate this soup several times throughout the years with no success.  The texture is never right.  So when I was talking to her on the phone as I cooked, telling her what I was making, we were talking about her dad.  When I said, “I think I’ll make a roux,” she immediately said “A ROUX?  Maybe THAT’S what my dad did.  I never thought to start with a roux.”  Hopefully, the next time my mom makes tomato soup, it’ll be THE tomato soup. 

Tomato Bisque with Roasted Red Peppers and Basil

Large can of diced tomatoes (28 oz.)

Small can of tomato sauce (4 oz.)

~2 to 3 tablespoons of double concentrated tomato paste (Or more if it’s the less concentrated canned kind)

2 cups of stock (I used vegetable)

One medium to large onion, diced

~2 to 3 cloves of garlic, minced (I used about ½ of an elephant garlic clove)

~4 Tablespoons of butter or margarine

~2 tablespoons of flour

1 Roasted red pepper, diced

Basil in any form

Milk, cream, or sour cream (optional)

Makes about 4 FoodieWynn servings or 8 polite servings

Start with a large, heavy pot.  Melt your butter over medium heat.  Add the diced onion and a little salt and pepper.  Go easy on the salt.  You will need less than you think.  When the onions are almost transparent, add the garlic and cook it until it is nice and fragrant.  If the onions or garlic start to brown, turn down the heat. 

Seriously, look at the size of that garlic.

Now, slowly add some flour to make a quick roux.  If you want a little more roux, add more butter and flour.  I added extra because I was afraid of the soup being too thin.  In the end, the extra roux I made probably did nothing but add extra fat to the recipe. 

Once you’re happy with your roux, add all of your tomatoes, the stock, and the red peppers.  I used the kind of red peppers that come in a small glass jar.  They are great to have on hand and now that I know they’re tasty they will be making their way into many a sauce.  I used 3 or 4 big pieces from the jar, or the equivalent of one large pepper. 

Bring your tomato and stock mixture to a boil and turn the heat down to a low simmer.  Add your basil.  I had planned to use a basil paste but realized at this stage in cooking that we were all out.  So I improvised and used about 2-3 teaspoons of pesto.  Any basil you have on hand will work.

Now, wait.  Let the soup cook for about 40 minutes, stirring occasionally.  It’s technically finished when you add the basil, but the longer it cooks the happier those flavors get and the better the house smells. 

When you can no longer wait, remove the soup from heat and let it cool slightly.  Puree it in a food processor or blender, or use an immersion blender if you’re lucky enough to have one.  I kept a few tomato chunks in the pot and pureed the rest in the food processor.  Are chunks allowed in bisque?  I like them, so we kept them.

Return the bisque to your pot and let it get warm again if it’s not as hot as you would like.  Make last minute salt and pepper adjustments.  This is when you would add your dairy component.  As you can see in the above photo, the milk jug is empty so we didn’t add any milk (thanks, Wynn).  We decided we liked the soup as is, and skipped the dairy.  But I would suggest adding some heavy cream, milk, half and half, or whatever you have on hand immediately before serving.  You can also just serve it with a dollop of sour cream on top.

I had mine with a grilled cheese and a little completely unnecessary sprinkle of cheese on top.

This was some delicious stuff.  I will definitely make double next time so I can have more leftovers for lunches.   I’ll be experimenting with this recipe in the future.  I might try incorporating some wine.  If I make this in the summer months when our Indiana tomatoes aren’t so sad, I will use fresh tomatoes.  If I’d had fresh basil on hand, I would have used that too. 

Today I heated up some leftover soup from Sunday and made a quick sandwich. 

Creamy Tomato and Basil Soup:

One can (46.5 oz) of Tomato Juice
Two cans of diced tomatoes or 4-5 fresh tomatoes diced
Half pint of Heavy Cream
Two sticks of butter
Fresh basil finely chopped
Seasoning

Empty tomato juice and diced tomatoes into a stockpot and simmer over medium heat for at least 30 minutes. Add the basil and blend together in a food processor or blender until smooth. Transfer mixture back into the stockpot and return to medium low heat add the cream and butter. After the butter is melted add seasoning to taste.

Toasted Muenster Cheese Sandwich:

One slice of of Muenster Cheese
Two slices of whole wheat bread

Toast the bread in a toaster and once the bread is done and while they are still hot place the slice of cheese between the slices of bread. 

This was a quick, easy and delicious lunch. I grew up with tomato soup from a can. After making it fresh for the first time, I doubt I’ll ever go back. I hope you enjoy this meal and hopefully there will be more to come soon. Until then Enjoy.

Last night I wasn’t feeling the best so I made a quick tamale pie. I did not however get a photo of this. Moral of the story, get a photo or it didn’t happen. That’s what my editor used to say when I worked for a newspaper. The dish was delicious and was super quick to make.

All I did was sweat out a whole white onion and three cloves of garlic. I added a can of rinsed pinto beans, a can of rinsed dark kidney beans, and a can of rotel juice and all. Then I added a splash of heat with some smoked chipotle tobasco sauce, smoked paprika and chipotle chili powder. I then cooked that mixture until it was heated through and poured it into a greased 2qt square casserole dish. 

Next I mixed up a box of jiffy corn bread mix as directed by the box and added roughly 1 cup shredded mexican style cheese. Poured that over the bean mixture and baked it at 400 degrees for around 25 minutes until the corn bread was golden brown.

My wife was hesitant about this because normally she doesn’t like ‘soggy cornbread.’ But she really enjoyed it and asked for it to be added to the normal rotation. I can’t really take too much credit for this dish however as my mom made something similar when I was a kid. But like a lot of things she made, I tend to make them spicier.

Now speaking of my mom, I’d like to talk about my inspirations. My mom is and will always be my biggest inspiration. I’m one of four children and it was a crazy household and she not only managed to raise the four of us, she also put food on the table nearly every night. Not an easy task with three super hungry boys and a picky little girl. She also did this with limited funding. We weren’t very poor, but we were never very rich either (think: lower mid-class). I think we all turned out ok in the end. 

My next inspiration of course would be my grandmothers. They were always baking and making things ‘old school’ and showing me new methods of doing things. I remember my grandmother cutting the skin off an apple in one ribbon. To her it wasn’t a big deal, but 10 year old me was super impressed. 

I also find inspirations in Alton Brown and other food experimenters. Science was always my favorite subject in grade school and cooking is essentially just tasty science. 

I am sure more about me will trickle out, but that is enough for today.

I guess I should introduce myself. I am 30 years old and I have been a vegetarian for more than 15 years. I am the only veggie in my family, so I had to learn to cook at an early age. What was once a necessity is now a passion. I love cooking, but more importantly I love creating new things for the people I love. This blog will hopefully allow more people to enjoy the food I make and allow a dialogue to create new ideas for future dishes. Enjoy.