Vodka Cream Sauce, Pasta & Fresh Salad

Recipe: Vodka Cream Sauce // Serious Eats

Rating:

This was my most favorite vodka cream sauce that I've ever made. Seth is more talented at making them than me, so I used a recipe for success.

The salad was my first harvest from my tiny container garden. There is a 100% chance I ate a bug. Oh well. Fresh & delicious!

French Bread Pizza

Recipe: The Best French Bread Pizza // Serious Eats
Bread Recipe: French Baguette // Local Breads

Recipe:

Our French Bread Pizza turned out truly amazing. I started the bread in the morning, and by the afternoon we had some fresh, soft loaves. We didn't have crushed tomatoes, so we whizzed a can of whole peeled tomatoes around in the food processor. The pizza wasn't soggy in the least; our sauce cooked up nicely and we loved the garlic butter base. If I could give this five kitties, I would.

Roasted Tomato Soup

Recipe: Roasted Tomato Soup // Serious Eats

Rating:

This is my ideal tomato soup. It's by far the best tomato soup I've ever made at home. The first time I made it, I accidentally used only one can of tomatoes. I have made it again since then, and it's even better with both cans. I think you could easily use milk instead of half and half.

We made the croutons from some bread machine bread. I think it was millet bread--a little extra crunch was welcome!

Garden Vegetable Sauce with Chickpeas

Recipe: Garden Vegetable Sauce with Chickpeas // Slow Cooker Revolution (pg 176)
To Drink: Villard Blanc // Goose Watch Winery

Rating: 

This was great! The recipe called for dried garbanzo beans, and I was amazed the improved texture and flavor compared to canned. I'm not sure I've had garbanzo beans except from a can; these were much better.

Like most recipes from this cookbook (which Seth bought me for Hanukkah), it required some browning on the stove, but the end result was worth it. I used chicken broth that we had open in the fridge, so ours wasn't technically vegetarian. We paired it with a lovely finger lakes white wine and some leftover Italian semolina bread. I will make this again!

Tomato Basil Soup with Rösti

Recipe: Tomato Basil Soup // Serious Eats
Side Recipe: Crispy Potato, Onion & Mushroom Rösti // Serious Eats

Rating:

We liked this meal very much! The soup has a nice texture and was easily put together with ingredients we had on hand. We used half & half instead of heavy cream. My mom recently gave me an immersion blender and I used it to mix the soup right in the pot. It was fabulous--thanks mom!

We tried making the rösti in our cast iron skillet, but it must not be seasoned properly. It got stuck and we had to mush it all up to get it out, so ours wasn't layered as intended. It still tasted great, and reminded us of latkes. We ate it with sour cream! Definitely tasty.