Jill’s Jumble

We ended up having a big meal at lunch due to a visit from my husband’s aunt and uncle from Michigan. Dinner needed to be a much lighter meal. You should have seen how excited my husband was when he realized what I’d made for dinner!

Isn’t it amazing how such simple fare can bring so much joy? This tomato soup wasn’t entirely from scratch but it was really quick and tasty. It reminded me of the gazpacho that my husband and I had in Paris on our honeymoon. I can’t wait to try it cold!

When I make soup, it’s different every time because I usually just follow a pretty basic guideline rather then any kind of formal recipe. In this case, here’s what I did:

Tomato Soup

Ingredients

1. Butter
2. One Leek, cut into 1 inch chunks
3. Three celery stalks, cut into half inch chunks
4. Two cans of diced tomatoes (14 – 16 ounce cans)
5. One can of chicken broth (14 – 16 ounce cans)

Instructions

• In a saucepan melt the butter.
• Add the leek and let cook until soft.
• Add the celery and let cook while you are opening the cans.
• Add the cans of tomato and chicken stock.
• Mix and allow to simmer so that everything is hot.
• Using an immersion blender, blend everything together.
• Serve hot with a bit of cheese.

Yum! Goat cheese for me and cheddar for my husband. He also had his soup with crackers. I’m sure I’ll be making it again. I love making soup like this with fresh tomatoes too!

Dinner tonight was pork chops cooked in coconut oil with cheesy peppers and applesauce. This picture didn’t come out as well as I would have liked. I didn’t think to take a picture fast enough!

The cheesy peppers are a really versatile food that a friend of mine came up with for camping. She starts them in the oven at home then rewarms that for meal time at the campsite. At home we either cook them in the oven or on the grill. We haven’t gotten our grill up on the deck yet so these were done in the oven. Here’s the recipe:

Cheesy Peppers

Ingredients:

• Bell Pepper
• Grated Cheese

Instructions:

1. Cut the bell pepper into wedges along the ribs so that they form cups when they are lying on their skin.
2. Place grated cheese inside the cup.
3. Cook either on a cookie sheet in the oven set at 350F or on your grill until the cheese is browned. Approximately 25 minutes.

In my case I used goat cheese which doesn’t seem to brown the way cow’s milk cheese does. So I just cooked them until the cheese was obviously melted. I love that the peppers aren’t fully cooked through. They come out surprisingly sweet which somehow works well with the cheese.

And here’s a picture of my husband. He wants me to write a blog just about him. He’ll just have to accept cameo appearances in this blog.