I'm not entirely sure where it came from, but all afternoon I had a craving for some homemade tomato soup. Every time I have attempted to make homemade tomato soup in the past, it has not turned out well and I'm not completely sure why, so I'm not sure what possessed me to try my hand at it again tonight. That being said, I'm so glad that I did, because I ended up with a delicious soup that Caleb gave two thumbs up. 

I did cheat a little bit, because even though it's tomato season, I had absolutely no desire to blanch and peel fresh tomatoes to make my soup, so I just used canned tomatoes I had on hand. 

I also made little crostini for garnishes. So. Good. 

Tomato-Basil Soup

Ingredients:

-about 1/2 T. olive oil
-1 small yellow onion
-1 heaping teaspoon minced garlic
-2 C. chicken stock
-2 14.5 oz. cans diced tomatoes (undrained)
-1 T. sugar
-the leaves of 3 small-medium sprigs of fresh basil
  (approx. 1 1/2 T. fresh basil)
-dash of cayenne pepper
-salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Heat oil over medium-high heat. Add onions and garlic and cook until the onions are soft and translucent.  Add the chicken stock, canned tomatoes and sugar. Heat to a simmer. Add fresh basil, cayenne pepper, salt and pepper. Lower the heat to low and allow to simmer 15-20 minutes. After 15-20 minutes, check the flavor of your soup. Make adjustments as needed. If you add any more spices, allow to simmer an additional 5-10 minutes to infuse the flavors. If you make no changes, turn off the heat and allow to cool just briefly. When the soup has cooled a bit, blend with an immersion blender. If you don't have an immersion blender, allow to cool even more and then blend in batches in a regular blender. Serve warm. 


Crostini

Ingredients:
-slices of bread (such as Italian bread or a baguette. I used a whole wheat baguette I made)
-olive oil
-garlic salt
-mozzarella cheese

Heat up a small or medium pan. Place slices of bread on a cookie sheet and drizzle both sides with olive oil. Place slices of bread in the pan, do this in batches if you are wanting to make more crostini than will fit in your pan. Cook for 3-5 minutes on the first side, until the crostini are golden brown and crispy. Flip them over and cook the other side. Sprinkle with a little garlic salt and top with a pinch of mozzarella cheese. Cover your pan with a lid, if you have one, and continue to cook another 3-5 minutes, until the second side is browned and crispy and the cheese is melted.

I hope you guys enjoy these recipes, let me know how you like them!  

At a daycare where I used to work, we used to serve grilled cheese for lunch every couple of months. We used mozzarella cheese and served it with marinara sauce for dipping. It was pretty good and easy and quick to make. I'm all about good food that's quick and easy, so I took the idea and made it my own. Here is what you will need:

2 Slices of Bread, per sandwich (I use regular whole wheat sandwich bread)
1 1/2-2 Slices Mozzarella, depending on how cheesy you like your sandwich
Butter, for the outside of the bread
Garlic Salt, to taste
Marinara Sauce for Dipping.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees, Fahrenheit. Toast your bread (this helps give them a little bit more crunch). Immediately butter your toast and sprinkle with garlic salt. On a baking sheet lined with either parchment paper or aluminum foil, place one slice of bread butter side down (if you're making more than one sandwich, place half of your slices of bread butter side down on the baking sheet), place cheese slices on top of your bread and top with your remaining slice of bread with the butter side up. Place your baking sheet in the oven and let cook until the cheese has melted and the bread starts to brown a little bit, somewhere between 5-10 minutes usually. Take the sandwich(es) out of the oven. I like to cut my sandwiches into four pieces with a pizza cutter. Serve warm with marinara sauce for dipping. Enjoy! 

     For as long as I can remember, every Sunday night my family had "Snack Night".  Sometimes, it would be something like bean dip and tortilla chips.  More frequently though, it would be air-popped popcorn, apples and crackers with cheese. 
     As an adult, I have carried on this tradition within my own family. There's not much that I enjoy more than curling up on a Sunday night with a big bowl of air-popped popcorn, especially on a windy, chilly night like tonight. 
     A couple of weeks ago when I was in the store, I picked up a couple of popcorn toppings. Tonight felt like a good night to try them out. Our air popper met with an unfortunate incident several months ago, so I had to pop it on the stove. I had never popped it this was before and actually really enjoyed doing so. 
     After the popcorn was all popped, I divided it up into five bowls. I topped two with the commercial popcorn toppings I had purchased (bacon cheddar and chocolate carmel), two with toppings I had made myself (parmesan garlic and cinnamon sugar) and I topped the final one with our go to salt and butter, just in case we didn't dig any of the flavors we were trying. I'm not sure why I was worried-- Hubby will eat just about anything! 
     It turned out that we enjoyed all the flavors we tried. My husband, in particular, loved the two toppings I created, so I thought I would share them with you. 

                                 PARMESAN-GARLIC POPCORN TOPPING
                                         1/4 C. Grated Parmesan Cheese
                                                           1 T. Garlic Salt
                                      Combine both ingredients in a bowl. 
                                                   Sprinkle onto popcorn.

                                             CINNAMON SUGAR TOPPING 
                                                    3:1 Sugar to Cinnamon 
                                                 (3 T. Sugar  1 T. Cinnamon)
                                                       Combine in a bowl. 
                                                    Sprinkle onto popcorn. 
                                                       (Or toast. Or cereal.)
     
     There you have it. Easy-peasy and SUPER delicious. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did. I am definitely looking forward to inventing and trying many more flavors.