Roasted Tomato Soup

Another Sunday, another delicious soup. This time, a deep, rich roasted tomato. The colour was wonderful, the flavour blew Campbell's tomato out of the water. It was just full of a richness and thickness that I hadn't experienced in a regular tomato, but now I don't think I can go back. Imagine this on a cold, snowy day with a hot grilled cheese and a good book. Perfection.


Ingredients

• 2 (28 ounce) cans whole tomatoes packed in juice, drained, 3 cups juice reserved
• 1 1/2 tbsp brown sugar
• 4 tbsp butter
• 4 large shallots, minced
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
• 1 3/4 cups chicken stock
• 1/2 cup cream
• pepper and cayenne pepper to taste

Directions

• Place oven rack in the upper-middle position and 450 degrees F. Line rimmed baking sheet with foil. With fingers, carefully open whole tomatoes over strainer set in bowl and push out seeds, allowing juices to fall through strainer into bowl. Sprinkle tomatoes evenly with brown sugar and bake until all liquid has evaporated and tomatoes begin to colour, about 30 minutes.

• Heat butter over medium heat. Add shallots and tomato paste. Reduce heat to low, cover and cook until shallots are softened; about 7-10 minutes. Add flour and cook, stirring constantly until combined; about 30 seconds.

• Gradually add chicken stock, tomato juice and roasted tomatoes. Cover, increase heat to medium and bring to a boil. Reduce heat the low and simmer, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes.

• Use an immersion blender (or if you don't have one, blend in batches using a regular blender) to puree soup to desired consistency. Add cream and pepper and cayenne. Serve immediately.

Recipe adapated from Smitten Kitchen

Grilled Cheese with Honeycrisp Apple

Grilled cheese and tomato soup is one of my favourite comfort foods. It's the perfect antidote to a cold and rainy day. I saw Martha Stewart on Oprah the other day and she said the "next big thing" is going to be the grilled cheese bar at parties, so I thought I would step up my grilled cheese from the regular white bread with a Kraft single, so something a little more grown up. 


The apple in this made it a perfect complement to the cream of cauliflower soup I made last week.


Ingredients

• 2 slices of rye bread
• 2 tbsp butter
• 8 slices mozzarella cheese (I cut it from a brick, so use your judgement on how much cheese this is!)
• 6 thin slices from a honeycrisp apple

Directions

• Slather one side of each piece of bread with butter
• Lay the bottom layer down in a frying pan on low heat, butter side down
• Place half the cheese down on the bread in a single layer
• Top with a layer of apple
• Top with the remaining cheese and then the second piece of bread with the butter side up
• Cook on medium-low for about five minutes
• Flip and cook on the second side for about 3 minutes

** I found it easiest to flip the sandwich with tongs, which helped keep the sandwich together