What's for dinner tonight?

We had the most delicious dinner...so good I have to share it...I've been searching for a Tomato Basil Soup recipe that comes anywhere close to Good Harvest, a very yummy deli here in town. I found this recipe on http://www.allrecipes.com/ and tweaked it a little.

Creamy Tomato Basil Soup

4 tomatoes, peeled and seeded

4c. tomato juice

14 leaves of fresh basil

1c. heavy cream

1/2 c. butter

salt and pepper to taste

Place tomatoes and juice in stock pot over medium heat. Simmer 30 minutes. Puree mixture and basil leaves. Return to pot. Place pot over medium heat and stir in heavy cream and butter. Season with salt and pepper. Heat until butter is melted. Do not boil.

After reading several reviews of the recipe, I made these changes:

1. Saute two cloves minced garlic and 1/2 large onion, chopped in the pot before adding tomatoes.

2. Subsitute the tomatoes and tomato juice with 2 - 28oz cans of diced tomatoes. It's easier and tomatoes are not very good in Minnesota in the middle of winter.

3. Only puree about half of the mixture. I like it chunky.

4. To cut the tartness of canned tomatoes, I added about 1/4 c. sugar.

5. I thought it was a little runny, so I added some flour to thicken it up.

It was SOOOO good. Nothing can beat Good Harvest, but this soup sure came close! To top it off, I served it with Mini Three Cheese Panini Sandwiches. This was my very own creation - the first time I've come up with something edible on my own. Here it is...

Sliced sourdough bread

American cheese

Swiss cheese

Sharp cheddar cheese

Garlic flavored olive oil

Layer sandwiches, brush oil on the outside of each bread slice. Grill on a panini maker. I used a George Foreman instead, you just have to flip them halfway through because the side near the opening doesn't cook as fast as the side near the hinge.

What perfect dinner for a cold, snowy day like today! I'll give myself a pat on the back, Great job! The only bad part is that I burned my mouth I tried to eat it so fast.

I should have taken a picture of our meal before we ate it to put on the blog, but instead, I took a picture of what was left...

And here's a picture of Kaia, just because you can never have too many.