Not the Typical Soup and Sandwiches for Dinner

When I started this blog, I intended for it to be a combination restaurant review and cooking experience.  But lately, it has definitely skewed heavily toward the restaurant review side as I've been traveling quite a bit.  And it's headed back in that direction later this week, so I wanted to be sure that I took the opportunity to make a couple meals at home.

Last night was the first of those opportunities.  The thing was, I spent all day at the beach playing in a volleyball tournament and didn't really feel like cranking out a big full meal.  Fortunately, I had Michael Symon's cookbook in hand and his philosophy of "if it takes more than two pans, I'm not making it", which was exactly what I needed.  I had flipped through the book when I bought it and remembered a recipe for a spicy tomato soup.  What could be better after a long day (which happened to be overcast and a little rainy) than soup and sandwiches?  I made a quick stop at Whole Foods and picked up the ingredients that I needed; tomatoes, sriracha sauce, blue cheese (specifically buttermilk blue cheese), heavy cream, bread, an heirloom tomato, and some bacon for BLTs.  I already had the red onion, garlic and chicken stock at home as these have pretty much become staples in our house.

To say that this soup was simple is an understatement.  I started by chopping some red onion and sweating in down.  Added in a little garlic and kept going for a couple more minutes.  Then add the stock, tomatoes, a bit of fresh oregano and sriracha.  Let that simmer for about 45 minutes.  Then it is into the blender with the blue cheese (I probably could have used the hand blender at this point, but didn't).  Blend until smooth, strain back into a pan on the stove to keep warm, and it's done.  It's almost as easy as making the stuff from the can but far more flavorful.  The soup was full of tomato flavor, with a hint of spice from the sriracha and the creaminess from the blue cheese and cream.  It definitely wasn't too heavy at all.  To garnish it, I took some parmesan cheese, put it in on a Slipat mat, and cooked it for about 10 minutes at 350 degrees.  I also learned to make my layers of cheese a little thinner if I wanted to have a crispy parmesan "cracker" (they were a little soft in the middle).

But as great as the soup was, it needed a sandwich to go with it.  For Jennifer, I went for an extra cheesy grilled cheese sandwich.  I did a layer of of mozzarella, then a little dill, some cheddar, a bit of bacon (not too much), and then another layer of cheddar.  This was all on some fresh Italian bread.  I buttered the outside and toasted it in the pan to a perfect golden brown.  For myself, I did a simple BLT, but with heirloom tomatoes and baby arugula on the same Italian bread.   For this one, I purchased the thick cut bacon, but at some point I am going to try and make my own based on the recipe and guidance in the cookbook.

All in all, I think this came together as an excellent meal, and really illustrated the transition in my cooking.  One year ago, this same meal probably consists of Campbell's tomato soup (or maybe one of those soups from the box at Whole Foods) and a couple slices of cheese between two slices of bread from a loaf, thrown in a toaster oven.  The response would have been positive, but not the same as I got with the delicious sandwich and soup.  I probably would have poured out the leftovers.  This is what has made learning to cook so fun.  I doubt that I come up with this recipe on my own, but at least I'm willing to tackle anything in the book, learn the basics, and hopefully some day adapt it to suit some different flavors.  The quality of the food is so much higher which makes it so much rewarding to put in the effort.  I'm not saying that I'm not going to do some of the boring meals anymore, we all get a little lazy every once in awhile, but that I'm getting more curious and more interested (and frankly better) when it comes to new foods.

All of this from tomato soup and grilled cheese...