Last night I was caught red handed smack in the middle of an adulterous affair. My first and dearest love came home, walked down our hallway and caught me off guard as I was sneakily involved with a new romantic fling. it all went down, right there on the new couch.
Luckily, Bon Appetite was man enough to let me be me. He understands that I need space and that sometimes you have to let someone walk away to prove that you really love them. My first foray into the world of Cook's Illustrated started simple enough. I love fall and I LOVE soup. I cracked open the mag and was a little stunned to see the plain, informative layouts; I was used to the glitz and glam of the BA.
Look at all that information! On just a little soup recipe. My poor overworked underfed brain had to strain to read all that text. Finally I got down to the ingredients list. Here at the ear doctor's house we spare no expense in getting the finest of ingredients.
The first direction had me pull out my dutch oven. Unforch the writers of this recipe did not know that in the limited space kitchen that a rental apartment provides there is just no space for a dutch oven. Sadly, I whipped out my stock pot instead.
But oh, how I wish the Le Creuset fairy would come and drop a green one off at my door...
After sauteing up some onions and garlic in went the tomatoes. Next direction? mash up the tomatoes with a potato masher. Up until about a month ago I would have had to do this step with a pastry blender (I have 3 of them). Luckily, my mom pulled through and got me this little beauty.
While the soup simmered I watched the floor show....
And in the end this recipe was fantastic and warmed me to the tips of my toes...not hard consider it is still about 80 degrees here in Colorado. I guess just making soup does not force the weather to be more like fall...
8 comments:
yum! that looks delish. i love grilled cheese and tomato soup. we need that here, it is freezing (or at least in my office it is!
OK, what to do with that wall behind your couch. From the picture it looks like your couch is angled out from the wall... is that right? If so, that would be the perfect place for a tree... personally I have a black thumb, so I'd go for the most non-fake looking one I could find at Michaels. Otherwise, good luck, I couldn't even begin to tell you what kind of a real tree to buy. It would disguise your beloved thermostat, not conflict with your art and if you want to get real cool... add a spot shining up from the ground onto the tree so you get shadows on the ceiling :)
I second Angela's thought. Home Depot has some nice palm selections, or how 'bout a rubber tree plant?
You won't have to get the biggest (read: most expensive) specimen available if you purchase an elevated plant stand for display. And you could string twinkle lights in it!
Isn't Cook's Illustrated fab? After reading it, Gourmet's overwhelming pretentiousness kind of makes my head hurt. Or is that the vertigo still?
Oh btw, I do plan on calling you to discuss that with the ED. tyvm :)
It's not Christmas decor if you take the antlers off. Then it's just a dog. (Isn't that what you thought it was in the first place?) I like the tree idea.
I LOVE Cook's Illustrated! In fact, they are the ones who told me that the Tramontina dutch oven is of very high quality while being very low price. I got my red one at Target and I saw a green one at Wal-Mart a couple of weeks ago. (I love green too and kind of wish I had seen that before I bought mine, but oh well). I've already used it to brown and cook a roast. Splendid! And at only a fraction of the cost of Le Creuset. I believe mine was $50 or $60.
Katie, I meant to ask: do you have the copper-bottomed pots from Costco? We got those when we got married and I love them. They're so pretty.
Mine are copper bottomed, but not from Costco. They were a Christmas gift a few years ago and they are dreamy.
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