First Post and Great Recipe!

So this is my first post on Blogger. I plan to share great recipes, craft tutorials and stories with you!

Fall officially started last week. The summer went so quickly for our family. I spent most of the summer traveling to see family and friends, working on my dad's benefit and starting my new Etsy business: www.calladoo.etsy.com.

Here is a recipe for a great end-of-the-summer soup...a great way to usher in the beautiful fall season!

I've adapted this recipe from Ina Garten's recipe which can be found here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/roasted-tomato-basil-soup-recipe/index.html

Ingredients

• 3 pounds of your choice of tomatoes, blanch and remove skins before starting this recipe!
• 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 tablespoon kosher salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
• 2 cups chopped yellow onions (2 onions)
• 6 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 (28-ounce) canned diced tomatoes, with their juice
• 4 cups fresh basil leaves, packed
• 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
• 1 quart chicken stock

Here are the tomatoes from our garden. Not much made it this year except for these little guys.

This should only take you about an hour and half to make. Unless you are potty training a toddler. This will add to your cook time. It may even double it. In that case, I recommend adding a glass of wine into the equation. Said toddler managed to pee on my carpet and my fabric-covered bar stool while I was cooking.

 You will want to blanch your tomatoes before you pop them into your oven for roasting. Toss your blanched and peeled tomatoes with 1/4 cup of olive oil, kosher salt and pepper. Place on a foil-lined baking sheet and roast in preheated 400 degree oven for 45 minutes.

While the tomatoes are roasting, add olive oil, butter, garlic and onions to a large stock pot and begin cooking.

Once the onions and garlic become soft, you can add the canned tomatoes, chicken stock, basil, red pepper and thyme. Once your fresh tomatoes are done roasting, you can add them into the soup with all their drippings. Bring to a boil then let simmer for 40 minutes, uncovered.

I recommend using an immersion blender to finish the soup. It gives it a great texture.

Serve with garlic bread, or with this meal I made a garlic flat bread. I made this by rolling out a pizza dough ball. I then added garlic, olive oil, smoked mozzarella and fresh basil. I baked it on 450 for about 10-12
minutes.

My girls loved dipping their "pizza" in the soup. My husband said it was my best batch yet.

If you try making this and find a delicious "tweek" to the recipe, please share! This makes a rather large batch of soup, so you can freeze the leftovers for another day.

Have a great week!

Casey