Easy Peasy & Fancy Schmancy! Pork Scallopini!

Today I want to share my quick and easy pork scallopini recipe with you!  Yes, you read that right!  Pork!  I accidentally took out a package of hand cut, boneless pork loin chops out of my freezer thinking they were chicken breasts because I forgot to label them.  So I needed to do something with these beauties.  Since I live in pork country, this is a super economical meal to make for my family and they love it.  You can, of course do this dish with thin chicken cutlets or even with the traditional veal cutlet if you prefer. 

This dish could not be any easier to make.  The end result is a silky, rich dish that is a mushroom lovers delight.  The light sauce is super flavorful and the perfect accompaniment to hot buttered pasta, rice or couscous.    

I started by slicing my pork chops in half.  I had hand cut some fairly thick chops off of a large whole pork loin I purchased.  So I got between two and three pork cutlets off of each chop and I had a total of four.  Then I pounded the cutlets with a meat mallet or something closely resembling a meat mallet.  In my case that would be a mini cast iron skillet.  That gets the job done.  You should use what you have available to you.  Then I dredged the meat pieces in a seasoned flour to coat.

The meat was sauteed in a mixture of butter and olive oil, in batches until they were all cooked and a bit browned.  Then I removed the meat to a warm plate to build my sauce.   I added onion garlic and a passel of mushrooms to the pan.  I also added a splash of chicken stock to de-glaze.  Then I let all the veggies steam saute for a bit to soften.  

Next I added chicken stock and lemon juice to the pan and gave everything a good stir.  Again I let this simmer for a few minutes to reduce and build flavor.  Then I added some additional butter to finish the sauce and give me a beautiful rich and glossy finish.  

I added the meat back to the pan and nestled those cutlets down in all that lovely sauce and mushroom loveliness.  I turned the heat down just a bit and let that simmer for a few additional minutes before turning the heat off and letting everything come to a peaceful rest before serving.

I served this on a bed of cooked and buttered angel hair pasta, but this would be just as delicious served with rice, plain or pilaf, couscous, quinoa or even cauliflower rice if you are on a low carb diet.  In which case, you can always leave out the flour and just sautee the meat in the butter and olive oil.  

This dish is quick and simple.  It has tons of flavor and a satisfying air about it.  I love this dish for a busy weeknight or a lazy weekend evening when I don't really want to do a bunch of work.  This is excellent served as I have shown or it can be dressed up for company and nobody has to know how easy it was for you to make!  I promise you though, they will be asking for the recipe!  So your secret won't be a secret for long.  

I hope you give this recipe for pork scallopini a try and I hope you love it!

Happy Eating!

Get a printable version of the recipe here:  http://bit.ly/1tdjvbx

Noreen's Kitchen

Pork Scallopini

Ingredients

2 pounds thin boneless pork loin chops 4 tablespoons butter, divided 2 tablespoons olive oil 1/2 cup all purpose flour 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning

1 pound Crimini mushrooms, sliced 1 large onion, minced 4 cloves garlic, minced 2 tablespoons fresh parsley, minced Juice of 1 lemon 1 cup chicken stock or dry white wine

Step by Step Instructions

Heat 2 tablespoons of butter and all of the olive oil in a large heavy bottomed skillet, over medium high heat.

If necessary, pound the pork chops with a meat mallet until they are about 1/8 inch thickness.

Mix together flour, salt and Italian seasoning in a shallow dish.

Dredge the pork chops in the flour mixture to cover completely.  Set aside on a dish until all of your chops are finished.

Working in batches, brown the pork chops for 3 to 4 minutes on each side until they are browned and slightly crispy looking.  Remove to a covered plate to keep warm while to finish the rest.  Remember not to crowd the pan or you will not get a nice brown coating.

When the pork chops are cooked, add the onions, garlic and mushrooms.  Using a flat spatula, gently coax the browned bits from the bottom of the pan.  If needed, add a splash of chicken stock to help you along.

Allow the vegetables to cook for 5 minutes until the onions are translucent and the mushrooms are softened.

Add the remaining chicken stock and the lemon juice to the pan with the veggies.  Stir well and allow the mixture to simmer for five additional minutes to reduce the sauce just a bit.

Add the butter to the sauce to finish.  Stir until it is incorporated.

Add the pork chops back to the pan and nestle them into the vegetables and sauce.  Allow to simmer for five more minutes.  This will help to thicken up and bind the sauce even further for a beautiful silky finish.

Turn off the heat and allow to sit for five minutes before serving over rice or pasta.

See how I made this in my YouTube video:

Get your Cajun on! Homemade, Salt Free Creole Seasoning!

I am getting ready to make some delicious skillet jambalaya, so I needed to replenish my supply of creole seasoning.  I had made a similar video several years back, but we have decided to update this and make it salt free.  

The flavor profile of creole recipes can be deep and vast as far as the combination of spices and seasonings that go into a blend like this.  Creole can also be called "Cajun".  They can be interchangeable as far as terminology goes.  The Creole people settled in the swampy bayou of Louisiana, but had a long journey to get there by way of Brittany, France and then Nova Scotia and then finally the low lands of the deep south.  Blending their heritage and cooking then with the native Choctaw people, the flavors continued to bloom and grow into what we know today.

Creoles trace their heritage to the French, Spanish, Africans, Italians and other people who chose New Orleans as their home. The French began settling la Nouvelle Orleans in the early 1700's. During the French colonial period, food was characterized by traditional French sauces. Dishes were mild in flavor yet complex in preparation. Meals, prepared by African cooks, also took on a distinct African influence. Gumbo comes from the African word gumba, meaning okra. These cooks favored slow cooking over a low flame to intensify flavor blends.

My blend is salt free because I prefer to season my dishes in layers and in in some cases, depending on other ingredients of a recipe, may not require salt at all in the end.  So this seasoning blend is perfect.  If you are on a salt restricted diet, you mix this up using spices you already have on hand and have a great little jar of creole seasoning at your fingertips to sprinkle into or onto anything you like!

This blend consists of paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, oregano, basil, marjoram, parsley, thyme, black pepper and cayenne pepper.  You can add to or delete things that you like better or don't like at all.  Make this blend your own and suit your own tastes.

I will be using this in a skillet jambalaya and this seasoning does the job perfectly.  This is also lovely sprinkled on eggs, used in a dry rub for chicken, pork, fish or shrimp or even tossed into a low country boil!  The possibilities are endless for it's uses and your imagination is your only limitation here.

I hope you will give this recipe for my salt free creole seasoning a try and I hope you love it!

Happy Eating!

Get the recipe here:  http://bit.ly/1WUzs2T

Noreen's Kitchen

Salt Free Creole Seasoning

Ingredients

4 tablespoons sweet paprika 2 tablespoons garlic powder 2 tablespoons onion powder 2 tablespoons oregano 2 tablespoons basil

2 tablespoons marjoram 2 tablespoons parsley 1 tablespoon thyme 1 tablespoon black pepper 1 tablespoon cayenne pepper

Step by Step Instructions

Combine all ingredients in a jar.  Seal the lid and give it a good shake.

Perfect for seasoning jambalaya, gumbo or even sprinkled into scrambled eggs or anything you love to give a kick to!

You can see how I made this in my YouTube video:

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What's for Dinner? Easy Oven Shrimp Scampi

A Shrimp By Any Other Name Would Still Be As Delicious

I have vivid memories of being a child and going out for fancy dinners with my family.  Not all the time, but for special occasions.  It was on this special trips that my parents introduced my brother and I to a world of culinary delights.  It would be these dinners that would develop our likes and dislikes and help us to be adventurous eaters later in life.

You most likely have similar memories, perhaps not like the one I have described, but one of your own.  One that you refer to when you are seated in a special restaurant and are reading the menu, maybe you look for your favorite, whether it be Beef Wellington, Veal Oscar or Chicken Kiev.  It will bring you back to that place when you were a child, when the table was much larger and the napkins seemed more like a bed sheet.  When your mother would let you take a sip of her wine.  You were allowed to order Chocolate Mousse, Baked Alaska or Cherries Jubilee, for dessert.  The latter set aflame table side for maximum impact.  Truly a spectacle to behold!

For me, there are a couple dishes that take me back to that place, when the napkins were big and I had to make an effort to be on my best behavior.  Veal Oscar and Shrimp Scampi are my two favorites that I always search for on a high end menu.  The first is one that I reserve for an evening out, and it is getting more and more difficult to come by, but the scampi, is easy to make yourself and even though you cook at home, you can still achieve the same flavors and memories that you love. 

There is also no reason to kill your self while making this dish.  I mean this is simple and making it anything else would be criminal.  Simple ingredients yield maximum flavor and that is what you want.  This dish is even easy enough to prepare on a busy weeknight.  It literally takes minutes to cook and aside from the cleaning and shelling of the fresh shrimp, really takes little time.

So, relive a happy memory, go back to a simpler time and do it the easy way.  I invite you along for the trip, here is how you make shrimp scampi the oven style, no brainer, maximum flavor way!

OVEN SHRIMP SCAMPI

Here is what you will need to make this dish:

2 pounds shrimp peeled and deveined

1 stick butter

4 cloves minced garlic

Juice of 2 lemons

1 tsp. Old Bay Seasoning

1 tsp. Mrs. Dash

1 tsp. paprika

1 tsp. sea salt

Prepared Angel Hair Pasta

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

In a baking pan place the stick of butter and place in oven until melted.  When butter is sizzly and melted remove from oven and add minced garlic and shrimp and toss to coat.  Return pan to oven and allow to cook for 5 to7 minutes or until the shrimp are opaque and no longer translucent.  Don’t let them cook for too long otherwise they will be chewy and tough and you don’t want that. 

When shrimp are cooked through remove from oven and add Salt, Old Bay, Paprika and Mrs. Dash along with the juice of 2 lemons, toss to combine and you are ready to serve of some angel hair pasta or rice, your choice.

I hope you try this and I hope you enjoy it!  As Always, Happy Eating!

What's for Dinner? Ground Beef Wellington

Filet Mignon Taste and a Ground Beef Budget

Since I have been doing my videos for Youtube, I have had more than one adventurous viewer request that I demonstrate how to cook Beef Wellington.  Now you can imagine the first ever request for this fancy schamncy dish put me over the top, but then I got another and then another.  What to do?

I can assure you that I, although well versed in the kitchen have never attempted to make such a culinary wonder, but I was up for the challenge.  The only thing holding me back?  The economy!  Taking a look around at the current state of the economy had me worried that making such a dish would be like rubbing salt into the wound of a broken and flat broke foodie.  Beef Wellington is amazing with its layers of flakey pastry wrapped lovingly around a beef tenderloin that has been buddied up with duxcel of mushrooms and goose liver pate and tenderly brushed with nothing but the best Dijon mustard.  But lets be real, this is not a dish for the faint of heart nor the weak of wallet!

So what was I to do?  I did what any self respecting video blogger would do.  I politely ignored the request and went along my happy way doing other things to please and tantalize the pallets of my viewers.  Then one day, not so long ago, I was visiting the store and I saw it, Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution Cookbook.  Now I am a huge fan of Jamie, having followed him all along from his days being dubbed the Naked Chef and boy was I happy to leaf through this book in the store, but as I leafed I realized that I needed to take this book home.  Much like a visit to the pound will result in you acquiring another pet, a visit to the bookstore will most assuredly guarantee the procurement of one if not several new tomes.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I read cookbooks from cover to cover along with a stack of sticky notes to mark the recipes that I will be trying.  You should also probably know that I am a self professed cookbook junkie, having spent years building a library that would rival the most intense cook among us.  But like cats, there is always room for one more.   One afternoon while reading this book, page after page, sitting the waiting room of the doctors office, I discovered this lovely recipe for Ground Beef Wellington.  This was the answer!  I was so excited, I believe I embarrassed my daughter but at 13 that is not hard to do. 

So, now I had everything I needed, a great recipe, an answer to the expensive problem and you.  Everyone can afford a pound of ground beef, along with the other ingredients, this dish did not cost a lot to make.  In all, this dish can cost anywhere from $10.00 to $15.00 depending on if you purchase organic meat or regular.  The puff pastry is around $4.00 and the other ingredients are all easy to come by.  Don’t want to use Portabellos?  Use Criminis they are smaller and they are actually baby portobellos, or you can just use regular white button mushrooms.  But don’t leave out the mushrooms and don’t forget that potato is important too, because the starch from it will help to absorb any of the liquid from the veggies and meat as it cooks in it’s little pastry cocoon.  I made the mistake of leaving out the potato, and while the dish was still amazing, I saw why the spud was necessary.

So without further Adieu, I give you the fanciest meatloaf you will ever make:  Ground Beef Wellington.

GROUND BEEF WELLINGTON

Here is what you will need to make this dish:

1 medium onion chopped

1 carrot chopped

2 stalks of celery chopped

2 garlic cloves chopped

2 Portobello Mushrooms roughly chopped

1 potato finely diced

Olive oil (around a tablespoon)

1 Teaspoon of Marjoram, Thyme or Rosemary

1 Large egg beaten

Sea salt

Cracked Black Pepper

2 Sheets Puff Pastry (I used 1 box of Pepperidge Farm Brand it’s in the freezer)

In a large skillet heat olive oil.  Sautee’ all veggies until soft and the potato is fully cooked, around 15 minutes.  Place the hot veggies on a small baking sheet and spread out into a thin layer.  Place the sheet in the fridge for around 15 minutes and allow to cool.

In a large bowl, combine the veggies, ground beef, salt, pepper, herb of your choice and half of the beaten egg.  Blend with your hands until the mixture is well combined.  Set aside while we work with the pastry.

Lightly flour a board or your counter and take the puff pastry and unfold both sheets and slightly overlap them and roll together.  Do not make the mistake of leaving them out for too long, because they will stick to themselves as mine did, but I just rolled them together with a rolling pin and everything was fine.

Your puff pastry should be around 12 inches by 16 inches with the long side in front of you.  Take the meat mixture and form a long log or sausage shape toward the long front side of the pastry.  Brush the remaining egg mixture along all edges, this will act as a glue to keep the pastry together while cooking.  Roll the pastry around the beef mixture and roll, leaving the seam side down under the log and pinching the ends together so the whole thing looks like a loaf of French bread. 

Transfer to a baking sheet line with parchment paper and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.  Remove from oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes before slicing. 

I served this with steamed cauliflower with browned butter bread crumbs.  There is no need to make a starch because the puff pastry is rich enough.  A green salad on the side would be a lovely addition as well. 

I hope you try this and I hope you enjoy it.  Look for Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution Cookbook, along with this recipe there are lots more that are wonderful and I look forward to making some of them for you.  I also understand that he is coming out with a new book very soon dealing with 30 minute meals.  Check it out, you will not be disappointed! 

I hope you try this and I hope you enjoy it.  As always Happy Eating!

What's for Dinner? Quick Weeknight Quick Potato Soup

This week was the beginning of the new school year in our area.  My girls started school this past Wednesday.  Back to school always makes me wax nostalgic of my own school days.  I remember the eager anticipation of starting a new year.  Meeting a new teacher and seeing my friends on a regular basis after the long hot summer of separation.  It also reminds me of the comforting times spent around the dinner table with my family recounting the days activities.  Sharing in our happiness and our troubles.  It was a great time.  Truly a thing I did not appreciate until I had grown and realized how great it truly was.  As they say, absence makes the heart grow fonder.  This is true of people and of times in our lives.


The family times around the dinner table were made even more memorable thanks to the bountiful spread my mother would always put on the table for us to share.  After a long day at school, there were few things that one could appreciate more that some of mom’s home cooking!  I hope that someday my girls will feel the same, when they are preparing to send their children off into the world.  Coming home to a comforting and warm bowl of hearty soup is always a great way to fill their bellies and help their brains tackle all that homework that they will undoubtedly be bringing home with them.  


This soup is so easy to prepare, you will not believe that this silky creamy soup can be made in under an hour.  Pair this with a green salad, some crusty  bread and butter or soft cheese and you are well on your way to making sure that your children will be satisfied in body and soul ready to take on algebra, earth science or Shakespeare.  Give this a try, I know that you will be glad you did!


This recipe is well suited for a day when you don’t know what to make.  Perhaps you have half a bag of potatoes sitting under your kitchen sink ( I always assume that everyone does things the way I do)  Maybe you have a couple of carrots in the crisper drawer, along with the celery that you bought last week and the half an onion that you put away over the weekend, and some heavy cream half and half or whole milk, you have what you need to make this.  


Don’t have the aromatics?  Use some frozen veggies!  That ½ bag of frozen broccoli, is screaming to be picked to play on this team.  Whatever you have that would be suitable for a soup, would be great to get this going.  Do the potatoes in the broth and add what you want.  Don’t want to use the heavy cream, use milk or plain yogurt!  Make this your own, you’ll love it and so will your kids!  Simple, hearty and satisfying, and you didn’t have to spend the whole day in the kitchen killing yourself on this one either!  







Here is what you will need to make this recipe:


2 pounds of potatoes peeled and cubed (I used Yukon gold)
1 medium onion or about 1 cup chopped
4 stalks celery chopped
1 cup carrots chopped ( I used matchstick carrots that I chopped up even more with my hand chopper)
½ stick butter (4 Tablespoons)
4 cups hot water
4 chicken bullion cubes
1 carton chicken stock
¼ teaspoon celery seed
1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
1 teaspoon salt (use Jane’s Crazy Mixed up Salt if you can get it.  If not, no biggie!)
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 cup heavy cream (or ½ and ½ or milk or yogurt)
Toppings:
Crumbled Bacon
Cheddar Cheese
Green Onions
Dollop of Sour Cream


In a large deep skillet or stock pot,  Melt butter, add onion, celery and carrots.  Sautee until soft and onion is translucent.  Add potatoes and give things a stir.  Combine bullion cubes or powder with hot water and add to pan along with entire carton of chicken stock.  Stir in celery seed, poultry seasoning, salt and pepper.    Cook over medium high heat for 20 to 25 minutes or until potatoes are soft, but not falling apart.  Towards the end of the cooking time, mash some of the potatoes while stirring, to thicken the soup with the starch of the potatoes.  Turn heat off and add heavy cream and whisk lightly to combine.  Allow to simmer over low heat for 5 minutes.  NOTE:  don’t allow the soup to boil otherwise you may risk breaking the cream and although it will taste fine, it will look really nasty.  


Serve this to your family after a long day.  Share, laugh, love and make memories over steaming bowls of this hearty soup that says “I Love You”.  


I hope you try this and I hope you enjoy it.  Until next time:  See Ya!

What's for Dinner? Ham and Cabbage Bake with Noodles

August is waning and I can feel and smell autumn trying really hard to burst on to the scene.  Autumn is by far, my favorite time of all the year.  In  my estimation, the finest of all seasons, with spring coming in second, winter trailing behind spring and summer in dead last.  I HATE SUMMER!  I never did well in the heat.  The only thing that saves me in the summer is gardening and the bountiful harvests that I get from my hard work in the spring, along with the canning and putting up or putting by that is done inside an air conditioned house!


Today is one of the first this summer that the humidity decided to take a holiday and a the temperature did not raise into the nineties.  As I walked outside this morning, I could feel Autumn calling to me, letting me know that she was on her way to put the earth to sleep for another winter.  I for one have never been sad to see the summer go.  Back to school, making way for Halloween and Thanksgiving as well as the changing of the clocks are all highly anticipated.  These things make me know that no matter what may happen, the seasons will always turn one into another keeping grounded for yet another year.


Autumn brings with it so many things that I love, leaves, pumpkins, gourds, hay bales in my front yard, putting the garden to bed for the coming winter, wood smoke, chilly mornings, campfires in my back yard and the ability to cook items that are just not good when the weather is hot and muggy.  Who wants to eat a big heavy meal when the temperature outside is breaking 100 degrees and the humidity is breaking 100 percent.  Who can eat anything for that matter when things are that uncomfortable?  But Autumn is my friend.  She is gentle, she whispers to me each morning when I step outside on my back deck with my hot coffee and breath in the cool, dewy air that is crisp and satisfying and smell the faintness of a wood fire, that someone has stoked to take the morning chill of his house.  She says “I Love You!”  “I am here for my yearly visit.”  “Enjoy me while I am here!”.  Perfection!


The beginnings of Autumn are magical to me.  It restores me, body and soul, bringing with it cool weather and the opportunity to spend comfortable time outdoors with my family.  It also brings with it cool weather veggies at their peak.  Crucifers abound, squash, broccoli, cauliflower, chard, kale, collards, mustard, Brussels sprouts and my favorite cabbage!  I for one, don’t think that there is anything better than a steaming plate of cabbage, sauteed with onion, apples and butter!  Green cabbage can be done like this as well as my personal preference, Savoy or curly cabbage.  Let’s not forget the red cabbage either, cooked long and slow and made to be sweet and sour, Harvard style.  YUM!  Love on a plate.


Today’s recipe will focus on the previously mentioned Savoy or curly cabbage, rich and green and bumpy and delicious.  Paired with onions, apples and ham, they join together to make a perfect main course alongside some buttery egg noodles and you have an Eastern European standard waiting to show you how wonderful dinner can me!  Give this one a try and you will not be sorry that you did.  Salty ham, tender crisp cabbage with just a hint of sweetness from the apples and onions.  You will be happy.  Instead of noodles, pair this with some prepared frozen Pierogies that have been sauteed with butter after boiling in a hot bath.  Delicious!  I think I can hear Autumn knocking at my kitchen door and she has brought me a dish of ham and cabbage and noodles.  I am happy!

Here is what you will need to make this recipe:

1 medium Savoy cabbage (use green cabbage, bok choy or other greens of your choice)

1 large onion sliced

1 apple cored, peeled and sliced

½ stick butter cut into slices

½ cup hot water

1 ham bullion packet

1 pound ham steak

1 bag egg noodles prepared and buttered

Rinse, core and chop cabbage into medium sized pieces.  Place in a large casserole dish or baking pan along with sliced onions and apples.  Place butter slices atop cabbage.  Mix ham bullion into hot water and pour over cabbage in waiting pan.  Cut ham steak into quarters and remove outer rind.  Place slices of ham atop the cabbage, onions and apples.  Cover with aluminum foil and place pan on a baking sheet.  Bake at 350 for 30 to 45 minutes.  Make sure not to peek, or you will lose all that good steam that will build up under the foil and it may take even longer for the cabbage to cook.  

While the cabbage and ham are baking in the oven, boil water in a large stock pot and prepare 1 12 ounce bag of egg noodles until they are cooked to you preferred doneness.  I don’t like them mushy.    When they are done, drain and butter with a couple tablespoons of butter or use some olive oil if you like.  

At the 35 minute mark, check the cabbage for doneness.  If you are happy, get ready to serve!  Plate up some noodles and cabbage and top with a nice piece of ham.  Sprinkle on some celery or caraway seeds and you are in for a treat!  Just like your Bubbe used to make!  Wink ; ).  

I hope you try this and I hope you enjoy it!  Until next time; See Ya!

What's for Dinner? Creamy Tomato Basil Soup

The garden is brimming with goodness and the harvest is here! Tomatoes and pepper, onions and basil and a world of other fresh produce that we are only blessed with this time of year.

To the avid vegetable gardener, this is nirvana. A satisfying season of abundance. A beginning of the time of year where canning and preserving will be taking place then giving way to the likes of county and state fairs. The latter where the works of many a home cook will be proudly displayed for the world to see and compete with other of the same ilk. A friendly (or not so friendly) competition between men and women where having made the best tomato conserve or strawberry jam can be daunting as well as a tremendous honor.

But the canning will come later and the fair even later still, so August will make way for the first of the fresh tomatoes. If you are lucky enough to have a garden, you understand that the anticipation of that first fresh red, ripe juicy love apple can be hard to take. But boy oh boy, when it is ready it is a masterpiece of deliciousness. Standing in the garden rinsing the big boy off with the garden hose, lifting its juicy heaviness to your waiting lips and taking that first magical bite. Mouthwatering? Yes, and no need for salt, for you know that if you have prepared the soil and organically fertilized the plants, there will be no need for superfluous salt. A moment made of perfection. Standing in the middle of nature, surrounded by your bounty, eating your own tomatoes, now that is paradise.

So, now that you have tons and tons of tomatoes and you have pawned off as many as you can on the neighbors and your mom dad and assorted siblings you need to eat them yourself. Make spaghetti sauce, make BLT’s and make this wonderful fresh tomato basil soup.

Enjoy the freshness of the season, and enjoy life. Because it is short! Much to short not to enjoy a fresh tomato, barefooted in the middle of the garden!

Here is what you will need to make this recipe:

4 pounds fresh tomatoes quartered

½ cup chopped bell pepper

½ cup chopped celery

½ cup chopped onion

2 cloves chopped garlic

½ cup fresh basil leaves loosely packed

4 cups water

2 veggie bullion cubes or chicken bullion cubes

1 Tablespoon sea salt

½ tablespoon cracked black pepper

Olive oil

½ cup heavy cream (organic preferred)

In a large stock pot, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil and add onion, garlic, peppers and celery . Sautee until onions are translucent. Add tomatoes and bring pot back to a simmer. Heat water with bullion cubes in the microwave for about 4 minutes depending on your appliance. Remove and stir to break up the cubes. Add to the pot with the vegetables. Bring to a simmer and continue to simmer for about 10 minutes.

Add basil to pot along with salt and pepper. If you have an immersion blender, now is the time to use it, whaz that soup up until beautiful and smooth. Alternatively, you may use the blender, transferring the soup a couple of ladles at a time and puree. Don’t do all of it at once, and remember to remove the middle of the lid and place a dish towel over the top otherwise you will have an ugly mess when that hot liquid explodes on top of your kitchen counter.

Now, turn off the heat and add the heavy cream. Stir to blend and serve. This would be wonderful with a nice crostini on the side or like we did, next to BLT sandwiches, made with organic apple wood smoked bacon and romaine lettuce and of course garden fresh tomatoes.

I hope you like this and I hope you enjoy it.

Until next time, see ya!