Week 11: Tomato Soup Redux (it looks like the picture this time!)

While I was grocery shopping this weekend on Saturday afternoon, I picked up two pounds of “very ripe red tomatoes” so I could make my tomato soup. I paid attention to how much larger and smaller tomatoes weigh (about ½ pound for a large and ¼ pound small). I also stocked up on Chicken Stock, as well as canned whole peeled tomatoes so I’ll have them on hand should the spirit move me to fix tomato soup sometime when I don’t have fresh tomatoes.

Sunday was another bitterly cold winter day, and I was so glad I had all the ingredients for my tomato soup (or so I thought) so I could make it for lunch. I dipped the tomatoes in boiling water and peeled the skins off, ate the skins as an appetizer, and put the tomatoes in my magic squisher without seeding them, despite the recipe’s instructions to do so. I’ve never used the larger blender/juicer part before, so I learned how to use that, and it’s really cool. It eliminates the need for a separate chopper, strainer, juicer, etc. I just dropped in the tomatoes, added the Chicken Stock, sea salt (which I was glad I had this time), and coarsely crushed black pepper. After pureeing it in my magic squisher, I transferred it to the saucepan and heated it without boiling.

The recipe said “season to taste,” but I put too much pepper in before I tasted it, and it was a bit more spicy than I would have preferred. I didn’t realize until I’d started making it that I forgot to pick up a lemon or any lemon juice at the store, so I wasn’t able to serve it with shredded zest and freshly squeezed lemon juice, which was an optional serving suggestion. Nonetheless, it was quite tasty topped with chives. It wasn’t as frothy as it was the first time I made it, and it was a brighter, prettier color of red this time, too.

I heated some up and fixed a nice side salad to have with it for dinner Sunday evening, and I’m looking forward to having the rest for lunch and dinner sometime this week.

"Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted." ~Randy Pausch

"...progress is often accompanied by the willingness...to take risks." 
~from Arkansas School for Math and Science Philosophy Statement