Tomato Bisque, Grilled Cheese & Wine!

Happy almost Christmas everyone!! 

I am so excited that we are heading to Virginia tomorrow to spend time with my family! I cannot wait to see them all! This past weekend my work had their Christmas party at a local store that supplies lawn accessories and large plants called Hay Hill Garden Market. They also specialize in gorgeous home decorations and furniture! We had so much fun with everyone and the decorations were beautiful! We even had a special guest swing by, check it out!

Last night I made a delicious home cooked meal; tomato bisque soup and the best grilled cheese sandwiches, here’s what I did!

Tomato Bisque Soup, I looked over several different recipes and then went with my own invention, here’s what I used:

1 28 oz can diced tomatoes

1 16 oz can diced tomatoes

1/4 cup chopped fresh basil

3 cups chicken broth

2 tbsp chopped fresh Italian flat leaf parsley

1 small can tomato paste

3 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp kosher salt

1/2 tsp pepper

3/4 cup heavy cream

1 tsp garlic powder

1/2 chopped white onion

2 tbsp good extra virgin olive oil

And here’s what I did!

Put the olive oil, onions, garlic powder and pepper into a large soup pan and cook on medium for 10 minutes. Add canned tomatoes, chicken broth, parsley, basil, salt, sugar and tomato paste to pot. Bring to boil and cook for 12 minutes on medium. Add in heavy cream, cook for another 2 minutes. Turn off heat and blend soup with immersion blender, blend until there are no large chunks. Cook for another 5-10 minutes. You can also keep it off and then re-heat it when you are ready to eat.

Best Grilled Cheese Sandwiches, again I looked at a few recipes then came up with my own thing!

Here’s what I used:

Sour dough bread, cut into sandwich slices

Gruyere cheese

Sharp cheddar cheese

3-4 tbsp Fresh grated parmesan cheese

3 tbsp mayonnaise

1 tbsp Dijon mustard

Salt & pepper, a few

2 tbsp butter

As for the cheese I went to my local deli and asked for 8 slices of gruyere and 6 slices of cheddar.  Here’s what I did!

Pre-heat pan to medium on stove. Combine the mayo, mustard, salt & pepper in small bowl. Spread a generous amount of butter on each slice of bread, place bread butter side down on cutting board, spread an even amount of the mayo mixture on each side of bread. Place 4 slices of gruyere on one piece of bead, 2 slices of cheddar and 1-2 tbsp of the grated parmesan (repeat on another piece of bread). Place the piece of bread with no cheese onto the other piece and place onto your pan. I put some aluminum foil on each sandwich and used a pot to weigh them down a little. Cook on medium-low for 10 minutes until cheese is melted and bread is golden brown. Slice in half and enjoy!

Guys, everything turned out DELICIOUS! Mr Tan Lines was so impressed, he’s not a big soup guy and he had two servings of the bisque! The grilled cheese was nothing but ooey-gooey yumminess and the soup was so creamy and tasty! I will definitely make this again in the near future! I paired our dinner with a special wine a client gifted Mr Tan Lines, it was an estate red from Medlock Ames Winery in Napa and it was wonderful! It had a great, smooth and light taste that went great with our dinner! Also, I don’t think I showed ya’ll my cute palmetto wine glasses I got over the summer!

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!!!  Cheers! :)