Potluck and Quick Easy Tomato Cream Soup Recipe

Porkchops, Tomato Cream Soup, Wine, Whoppers, Havannets for Dinner

My friends and i got together for a "potluck". Chux made barbecue porkchops and brought red wine. Lance brought Hershey's Whoppers Ice Cream. Debbie brought Havannas all the way from Argentina! I made Tomato Cream Soup. :D We watched Friends with Benefits after (Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake).

So here I am - sharing the quick and easy recipe for tomato cream soup! It's quick, easy... this is the shortcuts and cheats version. It's not exactly healthy since I just used bouillon cubes (high sodium) instead of chicken stock, but I needed something quick.

Ingredients (Serves 4-6):

• 3 cups of water
• 1 chicken bouillion cube (or more, if you feel like it)
• 1 big can of tomatoes (sometimes i use diced, sometimes whole - i prefer whole)
• 2 cloves of garlic and 1 small onion chopped
• 1 pack of all purpose cream
• a teaspoon of dried rosemary (or anything you feel like adding, maybe basil)
• freshly ground black pepper and extra virgin olive oil at the end
• Croutons (my friends requested for croutons but I didn't have any)

How to:

1. Dissolve the bouillon cubes with the water in a soup pot and let it boil in medium heat
2. Add the canned tomatoes in with rosemary and the chopped onions and garlic. Let it simmer for 5 minutes.
3. Turn off the heat and wait for it to cool a bit. Add the cream in and mix.
4. When it's not boiling-hot anymore, transfer it to a blender but only up to half of the blender at a time to prevent it from spilling when you blend. Transfer the blended soup into a soup bowl.
5. Once everything is blended, it's ready to be transferred into the smaller bowls.
6. Add black pepper and a little bit of extra virgin olive oil on top. If someone requested for croutons, add it as well. :)

UPDATE!!! [Nov 18] Here's an even better recipe for the Tomato Soup, but it would take a lot more effort than this one. http://myhobbycollection.blogspot.com/2012/11/italian-cooking-spree-we-made-chunky.html 

Instant Sugar Scrub at the Office

As I was working in the office, I kept getting distracted by the dry skin on my nose. Then an idea hit me, why not make a quick scrub using sugar from the pantry?

How-to:
So anyway, I got some Cetaphil facial wash on my palm, just a small blob, as big as 25 centavos. I headed off to the pantry and got a quarter teaspoon of sugar. So I mixed the sugar and Cetaphil on my palm and scrubbed my face with it. :)

Just be careful not to overscrub. I think I overscrubbed a little bit on my cheeks, but now the dry skin on my nose is gone! Hehe...

For more ideas on home made sugar scrubs, head on over here to Tip Junkie for 14 Easy Homemade Sugar Scrub Recipes.

REALLY Quick Salad Dressing

I've been eating those Goolai Salads they sell in convenience stores for a while now. You know how big they are right?

I found that if I get the ones with the creamy dressing, I can't finish the salad. But if I get the vinagrette dressings, i can finish the whole thing!

I get tired of eating halfway through if it's the creamy dressing ("suya" in Tagalog). I also feel that it's a lot heavier in a not so good icky way.

So now, we have the caesar salad version at home. The dressing wasn't actually creamy, but it "feels/tastes" the same as the creamy ones like the ranch dressing. I wanted to give it a shot so i put in 1/4 (roughly 2 tablespoons)... i still found myself getting "suya".

How to: I grabbed some extra virgin olive oil, drizzled a bit. I added a splash of white vinegar (I used Datu Puti brand). I also added a little bit of chili-onion-infused vinegar (it's just vinegar that had chili and chopped onions mixed in). I tossed it all in.

It turned out well! My brother said it was refreshing. :)

There you have it! Vinegar + Olive Oil. REALLY quick salad dressing!

How to: Creamy Eggs on Toast (Microwave)

In relation to my previous post here on Creamy Scrambled Eggs using a microwave, I'm posting here the steps in making it.

How to:

• Crack the egg into a bowl, put in the knob of butter. Prepare [but don't add!] your other things to add in. In my case, it was basil, bleu cheese, and a spring onion leaf.
• Put it in the microwave and nuke for 10 seconds. Take it out and mix. Continue with the 10-second-nuke-and-mix cycle. If the egg starts to become solid, keep mashing to get the lumpy mix.

• When the mixture becomes lumpy like below, add in the basil, cheese, chopped spring onion. Mix it around.
• Do another round of 10-second-nuking-and-mixing. Add salt and pepper. Check if you're happy with the consistency. If not, keep doing the 10-second-nuking-and-mixing. Just be careful to not overcook, as eggs tend to continue cooking with the residual heat after you've taken it out of the microwave.
• After that, put it on top of the bread. :) That's it!

Tuna Sisig from Leftover Canned Tuna

Today, i stayed at home. My family left home for dinner so I made "Tuna Sisig" from my leftover lunch. I put quote-marks, because I'm not entirely sure if it qualifies as Tuna Sisig because it's different from the usual ones where there's mayo or what.

Since I used what was available, I like to think this version is kind of unique. Instead of mayo, I used honey mustard (but only in very small amounts). I also used a little bit of basil for its smell, I picked 3 big leaves from the garden.

Anyway, here's what it looks like...

Ingredients (Enough for 1-2 people):

• About 1 can of the hot and spicy tuna (I used about 3/4 of the can because i ate some for lunch)
• Oil from the tuna in the can
• 3-5 pieces of fresh basil leaves, cut into strips (YES, I had some. I like basil.)
• About a tsp of minced onions
• About a tsp of minced garlic
• A dash of soy sauce
• About half a tsp of honey mustard (because I didn't have mayo)
• 1 calamansi

Procedure:

1. Put the tuna in a pan, break it into smaller pieces. It'll start cooking in its own oil. Add some oil from the can if it looks dry.
2. Add the basil, onions, and garlic. Let it fry around.
3. Keep adding some of the oil from the tuna can and let the tuna bits brown. I like mine partially crunchy. 
4. When you're happy with the crunchiness level, add the honey mustard.
5. Serve it on a plate then squeeze the calamansi juice over it.

If you like it spicy, add some chopped chili or add hot sauce. Since the tuna I used was already spicy, I didn't need to add anything else. Don't limit yourself to what I've written here! Feel free to experiment and use whatever you like. :)