I'm having one of THOSE days

I actually went to bed early last night despite the fact that it was going to be daily savings time the next day. That was the smartest decision I made because it's 7:00pm and I should have passed out hours ago based on my day's events. I woke up at 1:00am because my husband's alarm clock went off. He was on his way to protect America and I wasn't able to completely go back to bed until 2:00am. It's cool yo, you know why? Because I've had 6 hours of sleep, a relatively hefty amount of sleep for me, but still, it was early. I fell asleep again and was awoken up at 4:15am by thudding and the sound of waves crashing. I rushed to my living room to see that it's storming so bad even Noah would have gone "woah, dude." He would add the dude part because he was a drunk, and I felt like a drunk stumbling down the street based on the site I just reckoned. My brand spanking new retractable awning has collapsed. Water was everywhere and the side of my master bedroom window has been chipped. I went out there in the cold and rain in my victoria's secret sweats and my husband's SF giants flippy-floppies to attempt to fix it. Needles to say, I was a MESS till he got home. I felt like I needed to chew $2000 in pennies, it seemed like the wisest way to rid of the numbness. My city man that has never in his life had to do any type of home repair fixed our awning before the rest of the storm came. I think he did pretty good for his first major home repair DIY even though it took most of the day.

The rest of my day was consumed by trying to figure out how to crochet a hat. Pretty uneventful except for the fact that maybe my first successful hat was out of mere luck. After restarting my current project four times which even included one round of untangling yarn, the future grizzly bear hat for Elliott is looking like it's headed on the right way, although I'm sure it's using a GPS barking in German. The crocheting and the awning took over my day and my original plan of Coq au Riesling for dinner is set for another day. Manicotti was the second option, that also was shoved to the side especially since this was one of the sights I encountered today.

He said he was flying.

The time for dinner was looming over me and I had no clue on what to serve the boys for dinner. One thing I really wanted though was tomato soup, the Campbell's kind. With all it's MSG and high fructose corn syrup, I wanted it in and around my mouth, but alas, this whole limit processed food deal has left my pantry without it. I remember in high school, this one girl shared a recipe her mom would make for her as comfort food and it was just canned tomato soup, pasta, sour cream and cheddar cheese. I wanted that tonight, I needed to get it. No way in hell though I'd go out there just for tomato soup. I looked in my fridge and it's like it yelled at me. Oh lookie loo, there's canned diced tomatoes from 2 days ago that's in desperate need of attention. I decided to indulge it and make what I desperately wanted: tomato soup with noodles. Really, and I'm serious, my goal here was to make tomato soup so good, it'll warm the tummy like it was Campbell's. Gratuitous Campbell's quote, enter stage right: Mmm, mmm, good. 

It had to be served with grilled cheese. Isn't that how it looks like in commercials? I want an all-American advertisement type of dinner. I'm all for it. God bless this country. I want to feel like one of those suburban kids in the Campbell's commercials from the 50's. Everyone needs to have a goal in life.

Now, I only had fiori pasta. I bought this because it was the only way I can have anything overly floral in my house that the boys wouldn't care about. Flower pasta, aren't they cute?

The tomato soup was a success and it made this rainy and horrid day end on a good note. My awning is fixed, I have no desire to consume mass amounts of copper plated coins and my son's room is still a disaster. I feel so good tonight, I'm going to end this post with the recipe. I hope you try it, it's one step closer to making the good people of Campbell's shed a tear and it's like kicking them in the groin. Everyone wants to kick someone in the groin. Right? No? Oh well. 

Tomato Soup

1 tbsp olive oil

1 large can of petite diced tomatoes

1 carrot, finely diced

1 celery stalk, finely diced

1/2 cup yellow onion, finely diced

2 tsp garlic, minced

2 tbsp chopped basil

2 1/2 cups chicken stock

2 tbsp tomato paste

1 tsp dried oregano

1/4 cup (or more based on how tangy you want it) ketchup

2-4 tbsp of sugar (again, based on how sweet you want it)

Salt and pepper to taste (I used approximately 2 1/2 tsp salt and 2 tsp pepper, but I'm a pepper monkey)

Toppings

Cheddar cheese or Monterey jack, shredded

Cilantro

Flat Leaf Parsley

Sour cream

Heat a large pot in medium high heat, add olive oil, carrots and celery. Saute until onion is a bit translucent, add garlic and basil. Once onion is fully translucent, add tomatoes, chicken stock, tomato paste, oregano and ketchup. Simmer until carrots are soft. Using an immersion blender, puree the soup, or just use a blender, food processor or food mill. Whatever you have handy to liquefy the soup works. Return to the pot, add the sugar, salt and pepper. The goal is to get that tangy and sweet tomato soup taste.

Ladle it on top of cooked pasta noodles, it can be anything you like, as you see, I used fiori here. Then top with cheese, herbs and cream. Feel free to add or omit any toppings. My little man is happy with just cheese and parsley on it.