Something Soupy

Happy Two Days 'Til Fall!

I love Fall.  My wedding anniversary is in the Fall.  Halloween and Thanksgiving are in the Fall.  Fall means blankets and tea and soups and casseroles.  Have I mentioned that I love Fall?!

As fun and wonderful as Fall is, it also means health screenings for Josh and me.  Every year at this time, Josh and I have to do a health screening for our medical insurance.  We do a mini-physical and have blood work done.  By doing so, we save some on our medical insurance rates each month for the next year.  It's easy and doesn't take much effort, except for the fact that the blood work is done after fasting for 9-12 hours, and with the hours that I work, I have no choice but to do this in the afternoon.  That means that I spend an entire day hungry and craving something rich and delicious for dinner.  

Having said that, Josh had a bit of an upset stomach last night, so he wanted the exact opposite of something rich.  He told me in the middle of the afternoon that he wanted soup for dinner.  Soup wasn't exactly the super yummy, rich meal that I wanted for dinner.  I decided that we were going to have grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup.

I know, I know.  It's not really all that exciting, but stick with me here.

Instead of cracking open a good ol' can of Campbell's, I decided to make the Best Ever Tomato Soup from The Pioneer Woman.  Now, I've made tomato soup once or twice before from scratch, but within the last couple of weeks, I saw Ree make this tomato soup on her show, and it looked easy and yummy, so I just went with it.

Yum, yum, YUM.  Heavy cream, basil, tomatoes that I canned last summer...what's better than that?  Not much, actually, unless you add croutons and freshly shredded Parmesan cheese, which I did.

The croutons and Parmesan really just added that final pop to this.  It was warm and comforting and pretty much the perfect Fall food.  It was also rich enough that after fasting all day long, it really hit the spot for something more than just a can of soup.

Thank you, Pioneer Woman, for not failing me once again!

Oreo Chocolate Chip Cookies

I made a bet with my coteacher today.  What we were betting on doesn't matter - what matters is that I lost.  Because I lost, I have to take her baked goods tomorrow, which means that I had to make cookies tonight.

Terrible, right?

Yes, it's always terrible when my house smells like baked goods.  It's also terrible when I have to scrape the mixing bowl to be able to eat one good spoonful of cookie dough.

Especially when it's Oreo chocolate chip cookie dough.

I like putting extra things into chocolate chip cookies.  Bacon and Oreos are the only two things I've experimented with (but I'm always open to suggestion, so please, suggest away!), but they're So Freaking Delicious.

I know I'm not the first person to think of smashing up Oreos and baking them into chocolate chip cookies (just ask Pinterest), but I came up with these last year for a coworker's birthday (actually, now that I think about it, it was the same coworker with whom I lost the bet today).  I wanted to ake her some birthday cookies, and she told me that her favorite cookie was the Cookies and Cream Pizookie from BJ's Restaurant.

Boom.  Amanda's Oreo Chocolate Chip Cookies were born.

Anyway, tonight, I made them again for her as her prize for winning our bet.  It also worked out well, because our classroom volunteer's birthday is tomorrow, so she'll get a bag of cookies, too.

In case you're wondering, Josh is working late tonight, so he's completely missing out on these cookies.  Don't feel too sad for him though - there's still chocolate chip zucchini bread left for him that I made yesterday.