Communal Cook-Fest!

I'm not in the mood for the cauliflower soup/chowder so I'm going to try and come up with something else.
 
I was going to try to sneak my soup and scones in tomorrow night, but now my mom and friend Wendy are coming up after work so that we can plan our weekend in Disney (sometime in October). I am booked Saturday and Sunday, but I just realized we are off work on Monday for MLK Day, so I think I will do it then. :)
 
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MadamSarcastra said:
@Moll Flanders -- In my quest to locate fire-roasted tomatoes for you, I stumbled upon this convo on PPK....

"To me, fire-roasted tomatoes taste sweeter and richer than regular tomatoes, not necessarily more smoky. I don't know if any specific stores around where you live will have this, but when I lived in the UK (which was a few years ago now) some Morrisons stores had these oven-roasted tomatoes with garlic along with the fancy olives and cheeses and stuff like like. I would probably use regular diced tomatoes in the soup but then add a couple of those oven-roasted fancy deli tomatoes (chopped up finely) into it because they have a similar (albeit more concentrated) flavor to the fire-roasted ones that come in cans. Or you could roast your own."

"So fire-roasted tomatoes are something more along the lines of sunblush tomatoes?"

"Yes, that's what they're called! Thanks. In terms of flavor they're sort of similar, in terms of texture no. The texture of canned fire-roasted tomatoes is the same as regular tinned tomatoes, but you know how the sunblushed tomatoes have a sweeter, more intense flavor than regular tomatoes? It's sort of like that but less concentrated. You can get them with or without herbs and garlic added. I wouldn't just use a ton of sunblushed tomatoes in a recipe because they're expensive and the flavor is sort of strong, but adding a few minced up sunblush tomatoes to a pot of regular tinned tomatoes would mimic the flavor closely enough, in my opinion."

Have you ever seen sunblush tomatoes? Do you have Morrison's stores nearby? I don't know your exact locale. Saw the same question posted on Yahoo... again, Morrison's was suggested... also some place called Asda.

When in doubt, you could always try:

Oven-Roasted Tomatoes (copied from another convo)
From Not Afraid of Flavor: Recipes from Magnolia Grill, by Ben & Karen Barker

Preheat oven to 250°F (120°C). Cut tomatoes in half, toss with olive oil to coat, and place, cut-side down, on a baking sheet. Roast for 1-1/2 hours, until the tomatoes are soft and have just begun to exude their juices. Cool, remove the skins, and pack into a container. These are delicious tossed with roasted or grilled vegetables, in soups, and with simple pastas and risottos. They keep for several days, refrigerated.
Click to expand...

Thanks so much for the info!:up:

I decided I'm going to make the Moroccan soup.Moroccan chickpea soup | BBC Good Food
 
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Soup's on!! :chef: Well, not yet... but very shortly. LOL :p

HAPPY COOK-FEST WEEKEND!! :D This is currently excellent soup-making/eating weather.... BRRR!!

I guess I'd better get my butt in the kitchen & get started.... :dance:
 
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SoupStart.jpg
Just the sauteed stuff... onion, garlic (fresh & roasted), red pepper, zucchini, fresh basil & other spices.

BruschStuff.jpg
The fixins (evoo, basil, sun-dried tomatoes, artichokes, & Go Veggie mozz.) for baked bruschetta crescent-roll cups!

I'll start on those when I add the frozen green beans to the soup. Now I knew this was gonna smell good, but my god.... :drool: It's all the roasted stuff! I mean, think about it... I'm using fire-roasted tomatoes, roasted red pepper, roasted zucchini, AND roasted garlic.... to say this smells amazing is a gross understatement. LMAO

So much sodium, though... shame on me. :rolleyes:
 
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I am 2 days away from when I can cook, things have been just too mad here and it is too hot... :/ might shop for the ingredients tomorrow.
 
Are we having a different thread for the photos? I am either cooking in the evening today or tomorrow at lunchtime, maybe tomorrow might be better as it will be lighter to take the photo.:) My house is really dark!:D
 
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OK, we are making a few things today with what is around the house, I didn't quite make the store this morning!

My son and his wife will make a soup, me some butternut squash, we also will make stuffed green peppers: the short grain brown rice for them is in the rice cooker, two big butternut squash are baking with chopped onions, mcintosh apples, black sesame seeds, some cinnamon and a couple other spices (son did this) in the holes of the halved squashes.

We will roast the squash seeds later with some of the taco spices that we are putting in the stuffed peppers. I also have some nice yellow summer squash on the verge of going bad (florida lol) so will slice lengthwise and bake with some tomato salsa on top. Since the oven is on anyway! Not sure what soup is planned, I know green cabbage plays a role lol. Possibly plain coconut yogurt as I saw that in the fridge.

Oh dear I can't upload the photo, the file is too big. Well, picture in your minds a fairly dark photo, shot into the oven with the 4 squash halves on a tray cooking. :)
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I made the Moroccan soup today and I didn't like it at all.:sob:I didn't bother to take a photo, but I have leftovers, unfortunately.
 
Moll Flanders said:
It was just very bland and tasteless. I actually followed the recipe to the letter as well, instead of just disregarding the recipe and throwing in random ingredients.
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Hmmm... maybe that would be relatively easy to fix. You could add stuff to it to make it taste better. If you had overseasoned it with some things that just didn't taste good together, you'd sort of have to dilute the flavor of what was already there to make it more palatable.

I still haven't decided what I'm making this weekend, even though it's a long weekend and I WILL be making SOMETHING.
 
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Moll Flanders said:
It was just very bland and tasteless. I actually followed the recipe to the letter as well, instead of just disregarding the recipe and throwing in random ingredients.
Click to expand...
Is it fixable?? That's happened to me plenty of times... and I'm of the mind to start at the low end of seasoning, then work my way up. I remember making something... I think it was the black bean & quinoa soup... I tried it the first night, it was horribly bland... so I put it back on the stove the next day & went to work with more spices... Mrs. Dash, cumin, chipotle, paprika, and a LOT more nooch... when in doubt, nooch it up, I say! LOL :p
 
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