best gazpacho ever!

if you know me, you know i detest tomatoes. ketchup literally makes me cringe. however i have recently found a recipe (involving tomatoes) that i do love! its from my across the street neighbor, kerri, and divine (probably because it has onions in it)! it is sooooo fresh & you can taste the "healthiness" of it!

what you need:
1 28-32oz can of peeled tomatoes
1 yellow pepper
1 red pepper
1 red onion
1 hot house cucumber
2 cloves garlic
apple cider vinegar
salt
pepper

what you do: 
wash all the veggies. peel the cucumber. take the core out of the peppers.

in a food processor put the tomatoes, peppers, onions & garlic. chop for a while (till there are no more big chunks)

add salt, pepper & a few splashes of apple cider vinegar as well as the cucumber (cut up into large chunks). chop with the processor until the cucumber is minced up. refrigerate and enjoy!

soup season is here!

another great soup recipe from Southern Living that i have stumbled across and plan to try out this coming week! 

baked potato soup

what you need...1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup chopped sweet onion
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 extra-large chicken bouillon cube
1 (24-oz.) package frozen steam-and-mash potatoes
2 cups milk
1/2 teaspoon pepper
Toppings: cooked and crumbled bacon, shredded sharp Cheddar cheese, sliced green onions

what to do...

Melt butter in a Dutch oven over medium heat; add onion and garlic, and cook, stirring often, 5 to 10 minutes or until golden. Sprinkle onion mixture with flour, and stir until coated. Stir in bouillon cube and 3 cups water. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring often. Reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer, stirring occasionally, 10 minutes. Meanwhile, microwave potatoes according to package directions. (Do not add butter or milk.) Stir potatoes, milk, and pepper into onion mixture. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, 10 minutes or until thickened. Serve with desired toppings.

tortilla soup

for those of you who love soup and didnt catch this blog last october, this is the best soup & i am making it again for my discipleship class on wednesday night when they are headed to our house for our 1st offsite :-)


Tortilla Soup

what you need:
1 chopped onion
2 tbsp minced garlic
1 tbsp olive oil 
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1-28 oz can crushed tomatoes
1-10.5 oz can condensed chicken broth (low soduim/fat free)
1-1/4 cups water
1 cup whole corn kernels, cooked
1 cup white hominy (found in the corn aisle at the groc--bush's makes it)
1-4 oz can chopped green chile peppers
1-15 oz can black beans, rinsed and drained (they make a low sodium option which was just fine)
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro (i used 1/8 cup parsley instead last year...this year used my fresh cilantro)
2 chicken breasts cooked and shredded 


what to do...
1) heat oil in a stock pot and saute onion and garlic until onion is soft. 2) add in chili powder, oregano, tomatoes, broth, water and boil.  3) let simmer 5-10 minutes 4) add in corn, hominy, chiles, beans, cilantro, & chicken 5) simmer for 10 more minutes

if you know me you know i have a hearty dollop of daisy on top and a pretty decent handful of 2% sharp cheddar on this which only adds im sure to why i liked it so much at souper jenny. 

happy silver sunday

a new [ali & joe] davis family tradition is silver sunday...at our house we pull out all the stops on sunday which is one of the few times that we actually sit down and eat the same meal at the same time during the week...sir christopher joins us at the dinner table as we give our thanks for the great week (knock on wood) that we are about to have & lately, safe travels for everyone else who is included with us in the moving way too fast category hopping from engagement party to wedding to football game every weekend.


today for lunch we dined at the colonnade, an atlanta fave, with joe's parents as they stopped in town...its always a treat to see them and visit with them on their way to/from montgomery & highlands.


tonight i had to rock-paper-scissor for what we would be having for dinner and i decided to keep it somewhat simple & light making my best attempt to copy something i never in a million years thought i would like from souper jenny (another local atlanta fave) that i had for rachel's birthday dinner.  plus we haven't used our silver soup spoons yet so it seemed like a good choice!


i think what caught my eye was that this recipe from googling a while included 1) tomatoes which is something i would probably trade for eating dirt yet actually enjoyed in this soup 2) hominy which is something i had never eaten but i think i ate it because i had no idea what it was 3)it has an onion in, which joe detests as much as i do tomatoes, but i didn't tell him and he didn't seem to notice 


Tortilla Soup

• 1 chopped onion
• 2 tbsp minced garlic
• 1 tbsp olive oil 
• 2 teaspoons chili powder
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1-28 oz can crushed tomatoes
• 1-10.5 oz can condensed chicken broth (low soduim/fat free)
• 1-1/4 cups water
• 1 cup whole corn kernels, cooked
• 1 cup white hominy (found in the corn aisle at the groc--bush's makes it)
• 1-4 oz can chopped green chile peppers
• 1-15 oz can black beans, rinsed and drained (they make a low sodium option which was just fine)
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro (i used 1/8 cup parsley instead)
• 2 chicken breasts cooked and shredded 

1) heat oil in a stock pot and saute onion and garlic until onion is soft. 2) add in chili powder, oregano, tomatoes, broth, water and boil.  3) let simmer 5-10 minutes 4) add in corn, hominy, chiles, beans, cilantro, & chicken 5) simmer for 10 more minutes

• 
  

if you know me you know i have a hearty dollop of daisy on top and a pretty decent handful of 2% sharp cheddar on this which only adds im sure to why i liked it so much at souper jenny. plus my go to glass of pinot grigio was the icing on the cake!

though this version might not have been as perfect as souper jenny--it was pretty good! i think a lot of what makes eating out good is that someone cleans up after me and i'm not the one washing my stock pot!

time to enjoy all sunday night has to offer starting off with desperate housewives/brothers & sisters with my mini vanilla ice cream sandwich!