Grilled Cheese Sandwiches and Tomato Soup Entries

I've been meaning to get these posted for a while now.  Well, my life, my sadness, sometimes takes over, and things don't happen as they should.  I'm working past my sad for today.  Not sure how that's going to go, but here we are....
I'm not sure of the best way to do this, so I'm going to wing it.  I'm going to list my suggestions one by one, as they came in with a  nickname - and I think everyone who entered will know who they are.  I'm going to keep it very simple! 

So! Here we go!

1.  Miss Julia: 
    Sourdough buttered for grilling then add mozzarella and white cheddar, smoked provolone, or maybe goat cheese be sure to add prosciutto.  Serve with Safeway's Signature Tomato Basil  Bisque.

2. Joshie!:
  Onion Rye bread with Dubliner Cheese and Corned Beef - no soup recommendation

3. BF Karen:
   American on buttered 100% all wheat served with Campbell's Tomato Soup

4. Penguin:  White bread with American Cheese and oleo - add some fried balogna - no soup recommendation

5: Julie girl:  Sarah Lee bread, real butter, sharp Tillamook cheddar for the sandwich. Serve with Progresso Tomato Basil Soup.

6:  NancyW1.  Use left over taco meat or chlli.  Campbells tomato soup.  Add taco meat and cilantro, 1/2 can milk of half and half. Serve with grilled cheese that has been buttered on both sides of sourdough bread.  Grill one side of each slice with Pepper Jack Cheese.

7: Medfordboogirl:
Wheat bread, lightly buttered and Tillamook Cheese.  Soup:  Organics Tomato Soup with peel and orange added and placed in food processor - also mix with a pinch of salt, pepper and fresh basil.

8: Jamie D.  The lightest coating of mayo inside each slice of wheat bread.  Grilled brown on the skillet over medium heat, with butter on the bread.  It's optional to add grilled ham on the inside. Serve wtih ketchup/mayo/ Sirracha sauce - use America cheese.

9: Pirogue Girl (MH):
 White Bread, American Cheese , fried in butter and served with Campbells Tomato Soup

10:Weizenheimer:  White Bread, Kraft American and Campbells

And finally - the last entry:

 Sue Baby the Alaska Girl:
Rye Bread with whatever cheese you have available, preferably Tillamook or pepper jack or a combo.  Start cooking the Sandwich open faced buttering the downward slice of each piece of bread.  It's important to put extra butter on the side to grill the ring of onions you will slap in the middle before you close the sandwich.  Along with those perfectly caramelized rings of onions
 add a large slice of tomato sprinkle in garlic powder and fresh ground pepper.   As for tomato soup - any kind is enhanced by simply swirling a dollop of sour cream or cream cheese and topping with fresh herbs, dill, basil, oregano or thyme. 

So there you have it.  Feel free to comment on the list - I hope to have a poll set up soon! 

Cooking Therapy - it doesn't always work

I used to have a friend who suffered from depression.  Usually alcohol induced depression.  We are no longer friends, not because of her depression, but because she let me down in a way no friend should ever let a person down.  When I look back at her sad pathetic days I would get so frustrated with her for not getting out of bed.  She would tell me that I just didn't know what it felt like.  Well, how wrong she was.  The only difference is she had the luxury of staying in bed.  I on the other hand am a mother, and that was never an option for me.  Until now.  I am now divorced and split custody of my girls with my ex.  So there are weeks I am alone.  Very alone.  So what do I do when I'm having one of those bad days?  If it's not a work day where I can go bury myself in my job, then I find something else to bury myself in.  Cleaning, gardening, and mostly cooking.  I have to say some of my most creative and challenging dishes come out of those depressed days.  And I usually feel at least somewhat healed by the end of my cooking therapy.  But yesterday the cooking therapy failed me.  Sometimes you just need friends instead. 

After more effort then I can explain to get myself going I pulled together all I needed to make blackberry scones with berries I had  picked the day before, butter, tomato chutney and ketchup.  Well, this is as far as I got:

Blackberry scones and homemade butter. 

The lug of tomatoes I bought on Saturday are still sitting on my kitchen table next to all the ingredients needed to make Tomato Chutney.  I went to bed worried that they will rot before I find time to get back to that project.  Today I go back to work and will be burying myself in my new job.  I'm hoping the tomatoes can wait until my next long lonely weekend.  It was all I could do to pull these two things together yesterday.  I ended up in bed by 5:30 pm and awakened by dreams of falling over waterfalls in a kayak at 4:30 am.  I did wake up very happy to have homemade blackberry scones and homemade butter for breakfast, and feeling a little better about myself for, at the very least, accomplishing those two things in spite of my difficult and lonely day.  Now I have the guilt weighing on me for not posting grilled cheese sandwich recipes as I promised, and gearing up for the taste testing I hoped to have set up for this weekend with my girls.  But guilt seems to be a good motivator for me, so I'll go with it. 

So yesterday, cooking therapy did not lift me out of my dark mood like it usually does.  Some days friends to lean on, a good cry and a very long night of sleep are the only things that work.  Next weekend will be a full one now. Making sandwiches and soup, taste testing and judging, and maybe I'll wow my kids with some homemade ketchup and have some tasty spicy chutney for myself. 

No time for sleeping in, no time for depression.  Plenty of time for cooking.

Grilled Cheese Sandwiches and Tomato Soup.

I'm not sure what inspired me, but I've decided to start a little challenge.  I've put it out there to all of my friends and acquaintances to send me their grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup recipes.  Anything from Velveeta cheese and Campbel'ls soup, to caviar and truffles is welcome.  One thing that grabbed me was a sandwich involving gorganzola cheese and tomato soup with coconut milk.  So if you're out there reading my blog, please send me your favorite comforting grilled cheese sandwich and/or tomato soup recipe - or something tomato related as well.  I'll post your recipe here on my blog, and I'll choose a select few, or have you all vote on them, and I'll cook up, and test out those recipes and post the results on my blog. If some of you who live close by want to be taste testers let me know. 
Ok, here we go!  Bring on those recipes!

A Good Hard Look - A book review

Check out my book review at Blogher.com.  A Good Hard Look by Ann Napolitano. 

Summer's Bounty

Today is the first annual National Can It Forwad Day.  Canning is taking on a resurgence these days.  People are looking for a way to eat fresh local produce year round, it's a good way to control the contents of their food, and it's a great way to stretch a dollar.  I'm not canning today, but I am admiring the colorful stack of full jars of pickles and jams sitting in my kitchen today, from the previous two full weekends of canning.  I'm so proud of my work over the last two weekends so I'm going to share all my hard work with you here today. In honor of National Can It Forward Day.

The first thing I do before canning is peruse my canning bible Putting Food By by Janet Greene, Ruth Hertzberg, and Beatrice Vaughan.  I love this book, it explains all the basics of canning and has some great recipes.  It's a must have for canning.

And this year my canning session was inspired by the August 2011Bon Appetit.  There was a great article in this months magazine called The Preservation Society about a group of Los Angeles friends who gather to preserve their summer bounty and to create a sense of community.

And yet another inspiration for my canning, and this book will be an inspiration for a great many things, because it rocks like Iron Maiden, was this awesome book that I splurged and bought for myself.  Forgotten Skills of Cooking by Darina Allen.

This book is worth a whole separate post, but for this post, just know that there is an incredible ginger rhubarb jam recipe that I used.  A recipe that made my kitchen smell amazing!

So, the first thing I did was take a walk over to the farmers market in Old Town Eureka on my lunch break on the Tuesday before I started my first round of canning and picked up a flat of these beautiful local strawberries.

These babies were so aromatic - the entire office was engulfed in the sweet smell of strawberries.  It was all I could do to keep my co-workers out of them, and even harder to keep my 7 year old daughter out of them on our way home - so I had to relinquish a few to keep the peace.  The next thing I did was pick up some more jars - which I just never seem to have enough. If you're in need of canning supplies, I highly recommend Fortuna Ace Hardware.  I like to go in the Fortuna store and just stare at their full aisle of canning supplies and drool.  It's my toy store.

Next was setting everything up, and getting everything clean and sanitized.  Getting it all in order so that once I got started it would all fall together and run smooth.  I did all of this canning by myself, so I need to be organized in order to not make a huge mess and to keep everything clean and safe.

My mom's hot water bath canner.  I treasure this.

First I did the strawberry jam.  It was an old style recipe with no pectin that I got from my Putting food By book.  And no, you don't need pectin - the jam will come out fine.  It's easier than you think.




My kitchen smelled like summer - the only thing that smells more summery would be the smell of fresh cut grass.

The next day a local neighbor of mine brought over some of his home grown rhubarb, so I said I would can it for him if he'd let me keep some of it, which he was more than happy to do.  So I have now officially defiled page 447 of my new Forgotten Skills of Cooking cookbook.  I can now turn straight to that page because it's been gooped up with my cooking.  I love my goopy cookbooks.
Nearly 4 lbs of Rhubarb, cut fresh that morning

Rhubarb and Ginger Jam

4lb rhubarb, trimmed

8 cups granulated sugar

grated zest and juice of 2 lemons

1/4 cup fresh ginger, bruised and tied in cheesecloth

1/4 cup chopped crystallized ginger or stem ginger preserved in syrup (optional)

Wipe the rhubarb and cut into 1 in pieces.  Put it into a large, stainless steal or Pyrex bowl layered with the sugar.  Add the lemon zest and juice and leave to stand overnight.

Next day, put the mixture into a perserving pan, add the bruised ginger.  Bring to a boil until it is a thick pulp, about 30 to 45 minutes, and test for a set. Remove the bag of ginger and then pour the jam into hot, sterilized jars.  Cover and store in a cool, airy cupboard.

If you like, 1/4 cup of chopped, crystallized ginger or preserved stem ginger can be added at the end.

Now for next weekends canning project. 
Beets from the Farmers Market in Old Town Eureka.

Spears of Zucchini soaking in iced salt water.

Sliced kirby cucumbers purchased from the Farmer's Market in Old Town Eureka, preparing to become bread and butter pickles.

All three of these recipes I found in the August Bon Appetite - and I can tell you I sampled them before I canned them and they're going to be awesome when they're ready to open and eat.  I can't wait to bring these on my camping trip coming up in a couple of weeks and share these with my family.

You can find the Pickled Beets with Star Anise, Zucchini Dill Pickles, and Bread and Butter Pickles in the August 2011 issue of Bon Appetite.

And here is my bounty of pickles.  I can't wait to get into them!

Hopefully soon I will be graduating to a pressure canner and I will be trying my hand at things like spaghetti sauce, ketchup, maybe some canned local albacore tuna, or just some canned green beans.

Even more summer bounty.  YUM!