Ultimate Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup

This week it's cold enough to flurry in the deep South and produce enough snow to collapse a dome in the Midwest, so everyone is in need of this body-and soul-warming comforting food.

Grilled Cheddar-Apple-Bacon Sandwich

This version of gooey melted cheese between slices of toasted bread takes a childhood favorite to whole new level. Sharp cheddar cheese combines flavor forces with salty bacon and crisp, sweet apple slices.

Tomato-Basil Soup

You might not be able to get decent fresh tomatoes this time of year, but cooking down canned whole tomatoes gets so much closer a out-of-the-garden taste than canned tomato soup. It makes for a medium-thick consistency. Fresh basil, still available for a price at the grocery store, completes the essence of summer-meets-winter soup.

Recipe: Tomato Pie

I came across this tomato pie recipe just after I'd eaten a delectable one at Kerby Lane Cafe in Austin, so of course I had to try making it myself. Baking layers of fresh tomatoes topped with cheese in a buttery crust created a meal whose wondrous taste we spent half our dinner conversation discussing.

The base of the pie is the kind of tomatoes that are unbelievably colorful and juicy this time of year.

Layer those guys with sauteed onions and what would have ideally been fresh basil (although dried basil worked when the real stuffed had all tragically wilted) and salt and pepper, and seal it all in with gruyere and parmesan. That plus a side salad equals a meal so very full of fresh veggie flavors.

Oh, and I made my first-ever homemade pie crust, which I found to be quite a beautiful thing. True, it took extra time, but a five-ingredient food processor action followed by rolling it out wasn't all that bad. It was plenty worth it for that buttery, flaky crust that you can only get in the homemade version (all-natural crusts from Whole Foods crusts the second best though). I failed to follow the instructions for pie weights and such and just baked it plain, so it  shrank down from the edges but wasn't too bad. Next time I will try the pie crust fitting tips I produced at work this week.

But what really inspired me to go scratch was wanting to add basil to the crust like my tomato pie at Kerby Lane. Yet another reason it's worth the effort.

Recipe: Heirloom Tomato Caprese Salad

When I told a friend I had written an article on heirloom gardening [July/August Cooking with Paula Deen — check it out on newsstands, friends], she guessed that it meant "inheriting a garden and keeping it up." She was close on the inheriting idea. An heirloom plant is one whose seeds have been passed on for more than 50 years. 


Each fruit or veggies had a unique color, shape, and taste, which are typically more complex than your standard grocery store variety, and it likewise comes with its own story (and anything with a story gains cool points in my book). I had no idea just how big heirloom gardening was until I saw firsthand an heirloom gardening festival last spring where hundreds of people trekked to middle-of-nowhere Missouri (near Laura Ingalls Wilder's house) in the rain to buy seeds and plants of hundreds of varieties.

While the endless varieties of melons, tomatoes, squash, and more inspired me to plant my own, I have excused it off for now with the uncertainty of long-term housing and resorted paying a little extra for tomatoes available for sale. Those above actually came from Fresh Market; ideally, I would have shopped for some at the farmer's market but leaving town literally every weekend tragically makes that task a little cumbersome.


Anyway, I showed off the colorful fruit in a caprese salad layered with mozzarella and topped with fresh basil, olive oil, and vinegar. The simple combo dressed up the flavor profile of tomatoes so that my usual sliced-tomatoes-are-ok stance became an I-should-eat-this-as-a-whole-meal-not-a-side-dish. It made such a purdy presentation with little hassle. 


I would have preferred super-soft white fresh mozzarella to the more dense yellow variety, but I was trying to use up what was in the fridge. I learned that my dad, who usually goes more gourmet in preference, prefers the more flavorful basic kind; plus, it is cheaper.

Recipe: Tomato Bisque

This creation came (hard) copy of a Ladies' Home Journal recipe for chicken tomato bisque my grandmother gave me a few months ago . I followed her enlightening (pun intended) notes to substitute of half and half for cream and leave out the chicken. The rich tomato, oregano and garlic flavors with a hint of cream stood quite well on their own, leaving no need for meat. A final word of advice: don't get lazy and skip the blender step like I did at first; a creamy tomato soup's taste and texture will best delight your tongue when pureed and left not with tomato chunks. It made for a simple, savory dinner (and side to a sandwich for lunch later in the week).

Chicken Tomato Bisque

2  Tbsp. olive oil

1  carrot, chopped

1  medium onion, chopped

2  cloves garlic, minced

1/4  cup all-purpose flour

1  28-oz can whole tomatoes with juice

1-1/2  cups low-sodium chicken broth

1 tsp chopped oregano

1/2  cup heavy half and half

1  tsp salt

In a large pot over medium-high heat, combine olive oil, carrot, onion and garlic. Cook, stirring occasionally until onion is soft, 6 to 8 min. Stir in flour until vegetables are coated; then add tomatoes. Add broth and 1/2 tsp oregano and stir, breaking up tomatoes. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer and cook 8 to 10 min.

Working in small batches, puree soup in a blender or food processor and transfer back to pot. Stir in half and half and salt and heat through. Season to taste with salt and ground black pepper and serve garnished with remaining oregano. 

Recipe: Baked Shrimp with Feta

For my Saturday night cooking adventure I bought me a large bag of frozen peeled shrimp and tweaked a recipe from the April Cooking Light for a something light, summery and healthy. I added more of my farmer's market tomatoes and onion as well as cheese because feta is just that good. The orzo with herbs the magazine recommended probably would have been tasty, but I  opted to eat it with the lazier, higher fiber brown rice.

Baked Shrimp with Feta 

1 lb. large shrimp, peeled and devined

1 tsp. olive oil

1/2 large onion, chopped

1 garlic clove, minced

3 tablespoons white wine

1 teaspoon oregano

2 large tomatoes, chopped

1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese

Add oil to large skillet warmed to medium-high heat. Saute onion for one minute. Add garlic and saute one minute. Add wine, oregano and tomatoes; bring to boil (mine didn't have that much liquid, so it didn't really boil.) Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Stir in shrimp. Place in 8x8 baking dish coated with cooking spray. Sprinkle cheese evenly over mixture. Bake at 450 degrees for 12 minutes or until cheese melts. 

Recipe: Tomato Tort, Broccoli Salad

These two dishes probably aren’t the best complement to one another in flavor; they both have a lot going on. But I wanted to make both, and what-Madoline-feels -like-making/eating won over tonight. 

I pulled this recipe out of the May Cooking Light because I was fascinated by the idea of a crust made of brown rice. I love crusts, but usually they have very little nutritional value.  Mine didn’t turn out terribly crust-like, but the layer of seasoned rice tasted quite good with the tomato-egg-cheese flavors.

The recipe tells you to prepare it in a pie plate, but I modified it to go in a bread pan to make fewer servings. I also made a few other modifications based on what ingredients I had on hand.

Italian Tomato Tort

Crust:

1 cup cooked brown rice

1 ½ Tbsp. olive oil

1 tsp. Greek seasonings

1 egg white

2 Tbsp. grated Parmesan cheese

Filling:

½ cup fat free milk

2 eggs

1 egg yolk

salt and pepper

½ cup shredded mozzarella cheese

½ oz. prosciutto, cut into thin strips

1 tomato

1 Tbsp. basil

1. Preheat oven to 350°.

2. To prepare crust, combine all ingredients; firmly press mixture into the bottom and up sides of a bread pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 15 minutes. Remove pan from oven.

3. Increase oven temperature to 400°.

4. To prepare filling, combine milk, eggs, egg yolk, salt and peppe; stir with a whisk.

5. Sprinkle half of mozzarella and half of prosciutto into bottom of prepared crust. Top with half of tomato slices. Repeat procedure with remaining mozzarella, prosciutto, and tomatoes. Pour milk mixture over tomatoes; bake at 400° for 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 325° (do not remove tart from oven); bake an additional 35 minutes or until set. Cool 10 minutes before serving. Sprinkle with basil.

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I only eat broccoli if its taste is well disguised. The best tasting yet relatively healthy broccoli veil to reach my palate recently was a broccoli salad a caterer prepared for my grandfather’s 80^th birthday in May. I recreated the recipe tweaking this Cooking Light broccoli salad to incorporate two of my favorite salad staples, cranberries and pecans.

Broccoli Salad

4 cups  small broccoli florets (about 1 1/2 pounds)

1 cup  chopped celery

1 cup  dried cranberries

1/3 cup chopped pecans

1/3 cup mayonnaise

1/4 cup  plain lowfat yogurt

3 Tbsp. sugar

1 Tbsp. white vinegar

Combine the first 5 ingredients in a large bowl.

Combine mayonnaise and remaining ingredients, stirring with a whisk. Pour dressing over broccoli mixture, and toss well. Chill for 1 hour.

Recipe: Mango-Salsa Salad

Tonight’s dinner combined my farmers market salsa making inspiration with my memories from the mango salsa and salads at Costa Vide. I made it for one serving, but you could multiply it easily.

Above: salsa. Below: full salad.

Salad

3 cups salad greens, loosely packed 

1 mango, chopped

¼ cup cheddar (or jack) cheese, shredded

½ cup salsa*

 1 recipe Honey-Lime Dressing**

*Salsa

2 tomatoes

¼ onion

1 jalapeño pepper

1 garlic clove

3 Tbsp. fresh cilantro

2 Tbsp. lime juice

salt and pepper

Chop first five ingredients to desired size. Stir together chopped ingredients, lime juice, salt and pepper. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours to blend flavors.

**Honey-Lime Dressing

2 Tbsp. honey

2 Tbsp. lime juice

1 Tbsp. olive oil

Mix ingredients and toss with other salad ingredients.