The Ultimate Grilled Cheese & Tomato Soup

Every now and again, when the Food Network magazine arrives, I find so much inspiration that I can't wait to start cooking.  The October Edition was a perfect example.

It just arrived yesterday and this evening I made Tyler Florence's Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese sandwich…page 127.

It was great and as I made a double batch, it was a great way to use up 4 pounds of tomatoes from the hoop houses.  And I have two full jars in the fridge.

The sandwich is grilled cheese with bacon and apple slices.  So yummy.  Highly recommend!

As BW brought home about 15 pounds of tomatoes…. I peeled, chopped and crushed the remaining 11 pounds and I now have 7 more bags of crushed tomatoes in my freezer.  

Very productive day.

Roasting Vegetables

One of the best way to eat more vegetables is to make them taste better.  One of my favorite ways to enhance their flavor is by roasting them.  I only started roasting veggies in the last couple years.  It started slowly and has expanded to include quite a wide variety.

Basically, here's the process:

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Rinse and dry your vegetable of choice.  Place on a rimmed cookie sheet.  Drizzle with Olive Oil and season well with salt (I prefer Kosher salt) and pepper.  Toss with your hands to make sure everything is evenly coated.

Roast until tender and slightly browned.  Use a large wooden spatula or metal flipper to toss the veggies once or twice during the roasting cycle.  This helps them to cook more evenly.

This process works with asparagus, cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, beets, brussel sprouts and any other sturdy veg you would like to try.  Obviously, the larger the vegetable pieces the longer they will need to roast.  Asparagus will likely take 10 minutes whereas cauliflower can take 30 to 40.

I do have some modifications for certain veggies.

Beets:  As beets are a very messy veggie, I cut the top and bottom off the beet and place in individual foil packs (making the foil into boat like shapes).  I them add the oil and S&P.  I then seal them and put them on a rimmed cookie sheet.  These suckers take a long time to cook.  I usually like to give them an hour or so.  Once the are tender, I open the foil packs and them them cool.  You can then easily slide off the outer skin and then slice them into a bowl.  They heat up super easy in a microwave if they need to be warmed.

Cauliflower:  You can click on the following link to  find my full recipe for roasted cauliflower .  Essentially you roasting cauliflower with olive oil, garlic cloves, thyme sprigs and S&P.  In the final 10 minutes you top it with a little shredded parmesan.  The recipe really does work wonders for cauliflower (hint…I don't really like cauliflower any other way.)  Again, don't forget to toss the veggies once or twice during cooking.

Brussel Sprouts:  These are pretty much at the bottom of my veggie list, but if you sauté up some diced bacon, drain and set aside.  Then replace the olive oil with the bacon drippings and roast until tender and browned…even brussel sprouts can be yummy.  (Remember to toss the cooked sprouts with the diced cooked bacon.)

If you've never roasted a veggie before, I sincerely hope you give it a try.  I think you will like it.