Roasted Tomato Soup

Shout out to Tricia Lunn for this recipe

 Roasted Tomato Soup

This is a poor man's soup that tastes expensive. Serve with crusty bread I like a baguette style and grated parm cheese.

Slice tomatoes in half, I use a mix of tomatoe variety depending what is on sale or what is kicking around. Let's say 6 big tomatoes and a generious handful of cherry.

1 small red onion sliced into 4 quarters. 1 stick of celery and 4 cloves of garlic. Lightly coat all in olive oil, season with salt/pepper and roast in oven until soft and toasty.

Add to soup pot, add 2 boxes chicken broth and fresh basil (you can remove basil if unwanted) bring to a simmer for 10 minutes, blend with immersion blender and season to your liking.

Tricia posted this to Facebook. I seen it and thought, hey, I've got to make this. This is my variation on the Roasted Tomato Soup

Ingredients

20 Cherry tomatoes

6 large tomatoes

1 red onion

2 peppers, yellow and red

2 celery sticks

1 package basil

2 yellow onions

3 cloves garlic

1 tablespoon parsley

1 teaspoon rosemary

1 teaspoon paprika

Salt and pepper

1 small can tomato paste

1 box 900 ml chicken stock

Olive Oil

Stuff you will need

Cutting board with sharp knife

Dutch oven

Stirring spoon

Cookie sheet lined with parchment paper

Immersion Blender

Directions

Pre-heat the oven to 350 F.

Start by cutting the cherry tomatoes in 1/2 and laying them, cut side up on the cookie sheet.

Cut the larger tomatoes in 1/4 and cut out the tough area where the stem would attach to the vine.

Cut the red onion into 1/4 and separate some of the sections.

Cut the peppers in chunks. The celery, cut into smaller pieces as I found the strands from the celery will clog the immersion blender.

Drizzle olive oil all over this. I used about 1/4, to 1/3 cup of olive oil. Salt, Pepper, rosemary, and paprika. It should look a bit like this.

After an hour, it will look like this

In the dutch oven, turn the heat to medium and give a long squeezer of olive oil. About 1/4 cup or so. Add the roughly chopped onion. Add some salt to sweat the onions. Once the onions are starting to get translucent, about 5 to 6 minutes, add the basil. If you are using fresh basil, remove the stems. Add the parsley and garlic.

Continue to cook the items in the dutch oven till fragrant. Should be another 5 to 6 minutes.

Add the oven roasted veggies and tomato paste.

Stir that all up. Then add the chicken stock. Bring this to a gentle boil.

Get out your immersion blender and go to town on this soup.

I did find that leaving the celery stocks long, like I did in these pictures, the blender got plugged up from the celery strings. I could of used my Ninja counter top blender. But then I would of needed another pot to transfer the hot soup to. If you use a counter top blender, only load it 50% at a time. Otherwise, it could froth over and you got boiling liquid splashing over you.

As I had seen in some other videos, they added some heavy cream to finish off the soup.

Serve hot with crusty bread rolls, or a baguette.

Comments and suggestions are ALWAYS welcome.

Christmas Cake

This cake seems to have a "bad wrap". Most people avoid this cake, or are drawn to it like flies to ....

I asked Chat GPT for a recipe and this is what I got. I did put my variations at the bottom.

Ingredients:

For the Fruit Mix:

• 500g mixed dried fruits (such as raisins, currants, sultanas, chopped dates, and candied peel)
• 150ml brandy, or orange juice (for soaking the fruits)
• Zest and juice of 1 orange
• Zest and juice of 1 lemon

For the Cake:

• 250g unsalted butter, softened
• 250g light brown sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 300g all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• A pinch of salt

Optional:

• 100g chopped nuts (such as almonds or walnuts)

For Decoration:

• Marzipan
• Icing sugar for dusting

Instructions:

1. Preparing the Fruit Mix:

• Place the mixed dried fruits in a bowl.
• Pour the brandy or orange juice over the fruits.
• Add the zest and juice of the orange and lemon.
• Mix well and let it soak overnight, or for at least a few hours.

2. Making the Cake:

• Preheat your oven to 150°C (300°F).
• 
  
• Grease and line a deep round cake tin (about 20cm/8 inches in diameter) with parchment paper.
• 
  
• In a large bowl, cream together the softened butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy.
• 
  
• Beat in the eggs, one at a time, and add the vanilla extract.
• In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and salt.
• 
  
• Gradually fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until well combined.
• 
  
• Fold in the soaked fruit mix and chopped nuts if using.
• 
  
• Spoon the mixture into the prepared cake tin and smooth the top with a spatula.
• 
  
• Bake in the preheated oven for about 2 to 2.5 hours or until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.

3. Decorating the Cake:

• Allow the cake to cool completely before decorating.
• 
  
• Roll out the marzipan and cover the top and sides of the cake.
• 
  
• You can also add additional decorations like holly leaves or festive shapes.
• 
  
• Dust with icing sugar for a snowy effect.

4. Serving:

• Once decorated, the Christmas cake can be stored in an airtight container. It often tastes even better if you let it mature for a few days before serving.

Enjoy your delicious homemade Christmas cake!

Now, there was a few variations that I did for this Christmas Cake.

1.  I used Kraken Rum

2.  I used Maraschino Cherries, Raisins and dried Cranberries

3.  My oven reset to 325 F as it's a convection oven

4.  I used loaf pans vice a round pan

5.  I baked it for 1 hour, it looked fine, knife came out clean

6.  No marzipan or icing sugar for decorating the cake

7.  No air tight container, it's under my glass cake tray

M&M Casserole

 

Oatmeal, Brown Sugar, Cranberry, Salted Caramel cookies

 

I am always on the lookout for a better cookie.

This one is pretty good, that's for sure.  You can use one cookie as a complete meal replacement.

Ingredients

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups old-fashioned oats
1 cup raisins, cranberries or chocolate chips (optional)

Stuff you will need

Stand Mixer

Cookie sheets covered with parchment paper

Spoon

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C) and line baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, cream together the softened butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar until smooth.

Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla extract.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Gradually add this dry mixture to the wet mixture, mixing well.

Stir in the oats and, if desired, fold in raisins or chocolate chips.

Drop rounded tablespoons of dough onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing them about 2 inches apart.

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the edges are golden but the centers are still soft.

Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring them to wire racks to cool completely.

I did this so that it made 24 cookies.

Comments and suggestions are ALWAYS welcome.

Best Carrot Cake

 

A few years back, we were talking about baking stuff and bringing it into work for everyone to enjoy.

Loving to cook and bake, I told everyone, I was willing to contribute.

One lady suggested that I make a carrot cake.  I thought, wow, what a great idea.  I went to the store and bought all the ingredients.

When we got home, Tonya told me, this person didn't ask for the carrot cake for work, but that I make this for them so that they could give it to their father on his birthday.

I was sure Tonya was wrong.

She wasn't.  I was devastated that I was taken as a fool and haven't made carrot cake since then.  I associated being a fool with carrot cake.

Ingredients

6 cups carrots

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup raisins

4 eggs beaten

1 1/2 cups white sugar

1 cup vegetable oil

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup crushed and drained pineapple

3 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

4 teaspoons cinnamon

1 cup chopped walnuts 

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 x 8 oz package cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup icing sugar

Stuff you will need

Stand mixer

Box grater

2 x 10 inch round cake pans, greased and floured

Mixing spoon or spatula

Mixing bowl

Directions

In a medium sized mixing bowl, combine the grated carrots and the brown sugar.  Set aside for about an hour.

Preheat your oven to 350 F.

In your stand mixer, combine your beaten eggs.  Gradually add the white sugar, oil and vanilla.  Stir in the pineapple.

In a different mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking sode, salt and cinnamon.  Stir into the wet mixture until absorbed.

Finally stir in the carrot mixture and the walnuts.

Pour evenly into the prepared baking pans.

bake for 45 to 50 minutes, or until a tooth pick comes out clean.

Cool for 10 minutes before removing the cake from the pans.

When completely cooled, frost with cream cheese frosting.

Cream Cheese Icing: In bowl, beat cream cheese with butter until smooth. Beat in vanilla. Beat in icing sugar, one-third at a time, until smooth. Spread over top of cake.

Comments and suggestions are ALWAYS welcome.