Creamy Tuscan Tomato Soup

Ingredients:
2-3 Tlb Olive Oil
2 Lg Onions, diced
5 C Tomatoes, diced & seeded
2 C Chicken Stock
1 1/2 C Whipping Cream
1 C Fresh Pesto*
Salt & Pepper to taste

Heat oil in a large soup pot and add onions. Sweat the onions then add the tomatoes and warm to a simmer. Add chicken stock and bring to a simmer and allow to simmer for 15 minutes. Take off heat and add cream and pesto. Using a hand immersion blender blend until desired consistency. If you do not have a hand immersion blender then you can use your blender in batches.

Fresh Pesto:
3 C loosely packed basil leaves
1/2 C olive oil
1/4 C pine nuts
2 cloves of garlic
1/3 C Parmesan cheese
2 Tlb Romano Cheese
salt to taste


I got this recipe from my mother-in-law that got it off some morning news show. I wish I could say which one and what day, but I have no clue. Sorry

Fresh Asparagus and Pea Soup

Over Thanksgiving, my awesome sister-in-law, Amber, introduced me to Ina Garten's fresh pea soup recipe. I loved it! In fact, I wanted to make it today. I was so perplexed because I also wanted Emeril Lagasse's asparagus soup recipe. It then hit me...COMBINE and alter the two existing recipes, and change some things. My recipe is AWESOME!. Seriously, you should try this and let me know what you think!

Ingredients and tools:
2 (14 oz) cans/boxes of chicken stock
1 bundle of asparagus
1 (16 oz bag) of frozen petite peas
1 medium red onion, diced
2 tablespoons of olive oil
sour cream for garnish/to taste
cilantro for garnish/ to taste

hand-immersion blender is best, but if you don't have one, your food processor, if you don't have one, your blender. The blender will work, but the consistency will be not perfect.
slotted spoon

Directions:
In a medium stock pot, add the chicken stock and bring to boil. Get the asparagus, snap off the tuff ends and discard, cut the asparagus into 1.5 inches long and separate the spears from the stocks. Add the stocks into the boiling chicken stock and reduce heat and simmer 20-30 minutes. While the asparagus and stock is simmering, get the red onion, dice and sweat the onions in a pan with the olive oil. Go back to the stock: take the slotted spoon and retrieve the asparagus stems from the asparagus infused broth. Add the onion to the broth, bring to boil. Then add the asparagus spears and reduce heat to a more gentle boil. 5 minutes from being tender add the frozen peas and increase heat to bring back to boil. The peas should only take 3-5 minutes. Get the cilantro and and sour cream from the fridge. Once the peas are tender and floating, puree until the desired consistency. Put in dish, serve with the garnishes. YUMMY!!!! It seriously is so scrumptious good and super easy to make!!! I love the combination of these flavors! hmmm yum! Next time I make this I may retain the stems and blend them in with the rest so the asparagus flavor would be more pronounced....


Honestly, I did change quite a bit of the recipes; if you are curious of the two original recipes click here for Ina Garten, and here for Emeril Lagasse.