red & green

Sorry about the delay, anxious readers.  I was sans internet this weekend and too lazy and chilly to walk to the library to give you some holiday updates.  My sincerest apologies... but I'll get you those missing posts today.  You can count on it!

Did anyone notice how cold it got this weekend?  It was cold enough to make me bundle up with knee high cashmere socks, a giant knit cowl, a hat, and fingerless mitten gloves in addition to my normal comfy cold weather clothes.  Weather like this makes you want to stay curled up in bed all day and watch movies with your friends.  It makes you want to order in, but then you don't because your friends are the delivery people and you don't want them to have to ride food over to your lazy ass in freezing cold, windy weather.  So what do you do instead?  Well, I'll tell you what I do - I make soup.  I love making soup because it's so simple, relatively quick and always delicious.  And to make my soup even more spectacular, I Christmas-ed it up by blending the colors of the holiday, red & green.

Using up some forgotten tomatoes that were starting to get mushy in my fridge, a bit of leftover pesto and a splash of cream, I made tomato soup from scratch.  But you can't have a creamy tomato soup without a side of grilled cheese; that would just be dumb!  But since all I had in the apartment was a chunk of slightly stale Italian bread from the grave store, I was forced to get creative with my grilled cheese.  Hence, the open-faced provolone and mozzarella toastie with sliced mushroom meatballs and fresh basil.  Yum!  I love taking random leftovers from my fridge and making a super amazeballs supper.  Especially when it's so cold outside that I don't want to leave my apartment.

creamy tomato & pesto soup
ingredients
6 ripe tomatoes, quartered
1 small onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tbsp butter
2 c water
3 tbsp pesto
1 c heavy cream
salt and pepper to taste
directions
1. In a medium sauce pan, heat butter and cook garlic and onions until they are soft and reduced.  Add water and tomatoes, bring the mix to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for about 15 minutes.  Put the mix through a food mill to get all the good stuff mashed together and return to the sauce pan.
2. On a low heat, bring to a simmer and add pesto, cream and s&p.  Heat to liking and serve.