What's for Dinner?

Tomato-Basil Soup.

A few months ago (or maybe a year ago, it's been awhile now, come to think of it) a Jason's Deli opened right across the street from our office. We eat there fairly regularly - they have great sandwiches and particularly good soups. My favorite is Tomato-Basil. Tonight, I attempted to recreate it.

I combined a can of diced tomatoes, a can of crushed tomatoes, and a can of tomato paste with two cups of chicken stock (homemade - once I started, I never went back) and a half a cup of cream. I added a tablespoon of dried basil, lots of salt and too much cayenne pepper. (I started with two dashes, which I could barely taste, and added three more dashes, which lit me up. Somewhere in those last three dashes, I crossed a line.) I pureed all of that, and added another can of diced tomatoes, drained. And then I kicked back and let it simmer.



It was pretty good, with just a little too much cayenne pepper. It wasn't as good as Jason's, but I'm definitely on the right track. I might need more basil, or maybe just use fresh instead of dried. At the very least, it looks just like Jason's, which is half the battle.

I served it with a little cheese and homemade tortilla chips (with Chinese Five Spice - my new favorite go-to spice.)




And for dessert, Sugar and Spice cookies. I found the recipe in my King Arthur Flour's Whole Grain Baking cookbook. After King Arthur retired from the Round Table, he kicked up some killer recipes. This one uses whole wheat flour, molasses, cinnamon, allspice, and ginger, along with the obvious butter, sugar, and egg. These were crispy on the edges, but chewy in the middle. In other words, perfect. And while the molasses was all I could smell while they baked, you really couldn't taste it too strongly in the finished product. Thumbs up.