Cozy Days are Here

Well, Mike has not gotten around to doing his Priceline post, so until then, here is our latest Fall meal :)
Last Thursday, we had the Neals over for dinner.
It was a grand time.
It was also a bit of an experiment.
You see, when I invited Joe and Heidi over, I told them what was next on the agenda for Autumn Project.
Tomato Soup.
Apart from a raising of the head and the eyebrows in a way that communicated "ooooookkkkaaay....I'm going to try as hard as I can to be polite and not scrunch up my nose and blow my cover," they both remained silent and kinda looked down at the floor. Fortunately, I’m not too thick-headed and I could take a hint ;)
I quickly gathered that tomato soup was not their favorite meal, but, after a bit of investigation, discovered that the only tomato soup they’d ever had was Campbell’s! I was filled with renewed faith, because homemade tomato soup tastes NOTHING like its canned counterpart. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is a very good thing. I promised them it would taste different than what they were thinking tomato soup would taste like, but also offered to make something completely different.
They graciously said they wanted to try the soup. So I agreed, but with one condition: they had to be brutally honest. If they didn’t like it even after tasting it, they had to tell me. I would not be offended. Some people simply do not like certain foods – I will not take offense at that. I told them I would make bacon grilled cheese to go along with it so they wouldn’t starve if they ended up not liking the soup. So they agreed to the terms and conditions, and that was that. We had a date.

Here are some beautiful gerbera daisies I found at….wait for it…GIANT the other day! Yes…good ol’ Giant. Buy one get one free. I love them. Complete with baby pumpkins.




And here is my expert bacon cooker. He is a pro. He does all the bacon frying in our house.




My new dinnerware went perfectly with the color of the soup :)





These were yummy. I took a French baguette, stuffed it with cheese and bacon, brushed it with butter and threw it on the Panini grill until golden and melty. Yes, melty. It’s a word.




My guinea pigs. To see if despisers of canned soup can become lovers of homemade soup.


And the verdict? They liked it! Unless they were lying to me. But Joe even went back for seconds, which I’m thinking he wouldn’t have done if he truly disliked it. But I suppose I’ll never know for 100 % sure until I get to heaven. Heidi…now’s your chance to tell me before I get to heaven and ask God the one thing that’s been bothering me my entire life: “Did they REALLY like the soup? Or did they just SAY they liked it?” ;)
Maybe this is a sign that I should work on better questions to ask God other than those revolving around soup.

Afterwards we cleaned up, made tea, and ate Ooey Gooey Pumpkin Butter Cake while watching The Office.
Here is Heidi trying to walk from the kitchen to the couch with a (clearly) overflowing cup of Paris Tea. I guess she didn’t want to miss out on any of that amazing goodness.


Ooey Gooey Pumpkin Butter Cake. Yes, Traci, that is its real name. I don’t lie.


Here is the recipe for the soup. It is from Ultimate Southern Living cookbook, and we absolutely love it. Thanks, Joe and Heidi, for being good sports and being adventurous :) We had a wonderful evening with you both!

Creamy Tomato Soup

Ingredients:

½ c. chopped onion
3 TBSP melted butter
3 TBSP flour
1 c. chicken broth
1 (28 oz.) can Italian whole tomatoes
3 TBSP tomato paste
1 TBSP minced fresh parsley (I usually just use dried if I don’t have fresh on hand)
1 TBSP sugar
1 tsp. salt
½ tsp. basil
¼ tsp. pepper
1 bay leaf
Italian Seasoning to taste
½ c. cream (light or heavy)

Directions:
1)Sauté onion in butter in dutch oven 3 mins until tender. Reduce heat to low, add flour and stir until smooth. Cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Gradually add broth, cook over medium heat, stirring until thick and bubbly.

2)Add tomatoes and next 8 ingredients (through Italian Seasoning). Stir well. Bring to boil, cover, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer 30 mins. Discard Bay leaf.

3)Process tomato mixture in blender until smooth. Return to pot, add cream and heat through. Serve with croutons and grilled cheese.

*two things – I usually add minced garlic when I sauté the onion, but that’s up to you. We just love garlic so much and I think it tastes better. Also, I just make our own croutons with bread – spread with olive oil, parm cheese, Italian seasoning and a bit of crushed red pepper. Cut into squares and bake for 10 mins at 350. they taste really yummy in the soup!