Adding on to the Carrot Soup

I've been rather obsessed with the Roasted Carrot and Tomato soup from last week.  In fact, I've had to double the recipe and make it a few times a week because my husband, son, and I have been devouring it!! 

I tried the oven roasting method and didn't notice that much difference in the taste of it.  It's a nice way to save time, and if you've got little kids who hang on you while you're in the kitchen, it's an easier alternative to standing at the stove and stirring a saute pan.  Just throw the carrots and onions in a 400 degree oven on a cookie sheet with olive oil and salt, and in 30 minutes, you've got the guts to your soup.  You can roast this at night while watching TV, then throw the roasted veggies in the fridge or freezer to make the soup later when you've got time/energy/will.

I had my husband come "play" with the hand blender / immersion circulator for one batch so I could report on that texture.  I didn't like it as much as I like the blended soup.  The creamy smoothness I get from putting everything into the blender wasn't duplicated with my stick blender.  It was still wonderful, but just not the same creamy smoothness that I have been craving since I first tried this recipe.

Stay hungry.

Roasted Carrot Tomato Soup

Today's creation is a roasted carrot and tomato soup.  And it's so good, my tummy hurts from eating two HUGE bowls way too fast.

One medium red onion
6 large carrots
olive oil
salt
white wine
6 cups chicken broth (or 6 cups water and 6 boullion cubes)
6oz can tomato paste

Dice onion and carrots, but they don't have to be pretty because you're going to puree the whole thing once it's all cooked.  You will want the carrots about the same size just so they cook evenly.  You don't want some to burn while others aren't even tender yet, and you'll get that if they are very uneven.  No need to get out the ruler here ... just a reasonable eyeball is plenty good.

Add a little olive oil to a heavy duty pan, large enough to hold 8 cups or more in volume.  Add the diced onion and carrots and a little salt to help bring out their moisture.  Be careful not to over salt at this point.  You'll want to check for seasoning after you've purred your soup, because you never really know how salty your stock, broth, or boullion will be once it's reduced.  I cooked the carrots and onions low and slow.  Didn't really bring the heat up past a 7 while they were roasting.  You can also place your pan in the oven and let it roast, rather than having it on the stove top at this point.  You want the slow caramelizing of the natural sugars in both the carrots and onions to come out slowly so they don't scorch and burn. 

Once the carrots are tender, crank the heat up and watch it carefully for the caramalization to get a little darker, but still be careful not to burn it.  Now deglaze with a cup of white wine.  Scrape up the toasty bits of carrot and onions that got stuck to the bottom of the pan.

Add the 6 cups of broth / bouillon and water.  Bring this to a boil just to get it's attention, then turn it off.  Using a slotted spoon, scoop out half of your cooked carrot chunks and place them in your blender or food processor.  Yes, more will fit, but do not put more than 1/3 max capacity into your blender or processor.  Ladle a cup or more of the liquid into the blender too.  Put the lid on the blender.  Place a kitchen towel over the lid and hold it down tight.  HOT LIQUIDS IN THE BLENDER WILL EXPAND, SPLURT OUT, AND BURN YOU.  Putting the kitchen towel on top of the lid will help protect you from getting hurt.  Your mixture will be very thick, so use a spatula and scoop it back into the soup pot.  Scoop out the rest of the cooked carrot chunks and repeat the pureeing process.  Do it in 2 batches so you don't get hurt and don't send carrot soup splattering and shooting all over your kitchen.

Return the last of the puree to the soup pot and stir.  Add your tomato paste and whisk everything until it's all blended, thick, creamy, and smooth.  Taste for seasoning, and add a little more salt if you'd like it.

Would be fabulous with a big hunk of crusty bread with Parmesan cheese toasted on top.  But I had mine straight up with a side of diet coke.  Twice.  Yeah ... two bowls of this and there's more to have for supper.  I'll freeze what's left so I can have more later.  This would also make a DREAMY pasta sauce.  Add some roasted butternut squash chunks to some whole wheat pasta or some spaghetti squash, and you'll have a dreamy meal that you'll swear should be illegal!

Stay hungry.

Sketty Mac-N-Cheese

Lazy Mommy Post:

Last night, my kids had a semi-home-made concoction of awesomeness.  Box of Mac-N-Cheese noodles boiled until cooked.  Drained, then put back in the pot.  I poured a cup of jarred marinara on the noodles, then added the powder cheese from the mac-n-cheese package.  Didn't add the milk or butter, just used the moisture from the marinara sauce.  Stirred it all up, and it was AWESOME!  The kids thought it was fabulous, and I made the mistake of "quality checking" a little more than was needed.  But it was just too good to have only one bite/spoonful/bowl.  What?!?  Like you've never "accidentally" eaten a snack or guilty pleasure kid food.  Don't judge.  You know you're going to try this.

The Great Compost Start-up

Who gets excited about trash?  THIS GIRL!  No lie. 

I just bought a composting sack (instead of a tumbler) to begin my adventure in composting.  Figured I'd start with a cheap option and be sure this is something I'm really into, and will continue to "do" rather than spending a few hundred to only have to put it on craigslist in a few years when the husband gets tired of mowing the lawn around it. 

A few weeks ago I started collecting compostable trash from kitchen scraps.  While doing some replanting in the yard I saved grass/dirt tufts.  Yesterday I shredded some old newspapers, and saved all the vacuum crud from the Dyson.  I was READY!  I've read that compost needs a mix of "green" and "brown".  Green being organic/wet, brown being paper/dry.  So after a few weeks of collecting treasures of the trash world, I was ready to make gardening gold.  So I opened up my sack and dumped everything in.  Layering as the experts say to do, of course.  And I placed it out in the back yard so it can begin to brew it's lovely self into magic soil.

My garden, herbs, flowers, and lawn are going to be ROCKIN' next year!  I'm really more excited about this than I perhaps "should" be, but it's one of those things that makes me simply ... HAPPY!  And I'm sorry, but how cool is it to be using my trash to make things better?  Dryer lint, vacuumed hair and dust, junk mail ... it all gets turned into making my yard, garden, flowers, and herbs awesome. 

I think everyone knows that I switched to cloth diapers for both kids in early summer.  My son is totally out of diapers (at 2 years old, thank you very much) and my daughter is still using the cloth diapers only.  I LOVE them, while most of my friends and family thought I had absolutely lost my mind.  But, I gotta tell ya, it makes me feel like a better person.  I'm a work at home mom, I do laundry all the time, so it's no bother, no extra work, it's saving us TONS of money, and it's keeping diapers out of landfills. 

Once I had two sets of amazing blue eyes looking at me from the angel faces of my newborn babies, I knew that I needed to do everything I could to be sure they had the best life and best future I could give them.  I'm not saying that diapers and compost will change the world, but it will (and has) changed the world of my two babies, and that makes me happy and proud. 

There's a saying that will always be true.  "If Mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy."  And this Mama is happy with making her world a better place with trash, dirt, and baby-poop.