DIRTY OVERALLS and DIRTY APRONS

Seriously people. You knew you'd be hearing from me sometime and that sometime is NOW. I'm joining the Biber legion of bloggers (rocky mountain kids, brewer central, endlesspossybilities, and made ba stories) to bring you my perspective on life, community, and of course, food.

Why Overalls to Apron? Well, for those who know me best, this choice of title is obvious. From the fields to the kitchen, enough said. One of the reasons you're hearing from me know is because I'm not in the fields from dawn to dusk. In these winter months I find myself itching to be there, but know that I should be savoring my form of a summer vacation. In these winter months I really get to dig deep (obviously no pun intended) into the rudiments of cooking and baking techniques, and I get to share the results with friends and family, love it.

With the first snowfall of late Fall and Spring, I allow myself to open my freezer and pantry to enjoy the huge stockpile of fresh harvest from the season that just came to a close. This is really my time to slowly enjoy all of the hard work that took place over the prior 8 months. I take this stockpiling pretty seriously - it is common to find me up at midnight on a random Tuesday in August finishing a huge batch of tomato sauce. Or you might find me finishing th 27th batch of arugula pesto. One might call it "vegetable anxiety" but I'm really bursting on the inside knowing what joy it will bring to the table during the winter months.

If you browse the common cooking and recipe websites these days, you'll find numerous posts on how to eat seasonally during these months, and you'll find your average roast chicken recipe with a side of root vegetable. And yes, I flipping love the roots, but here's a recipe that I pulled from my freezer. It will leave you reminiscing about August, for sure. It's simple, tasty, and of course, delicious!!

Roasted Tomato Soup
adapted from a recipe found on lovefoodeat.com

2 cups frozen corn kernels
4 cups whole roasted tomatoes (please, don't buy canned, email me if you want to know the magic of roasting tomatoes!!)
2 cups stock or water
garlic, and lots of it
olive oil
fresh herbs, really water you have in your fridge

1) Heat a couple of table spoons of oil in a large soup pot over medium heat. Once the oil is heated add your desired amount of garlic and heat until you start to smell the garlic (about a minute).

2) Add the corn kernels, roasted tomatoes, and stock to the pot. Bring the mixture to a boil and then reduce the heat to medium low. Allow the mixture to simmer for at least 20 minutes.

3) Once the mixture has simmered blend in batches in a food processor or in the pot with an immersion blender. At this point you can throw in whatever herb you have on hand: basil, thyme, whatever!! Taste the soup and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper.

Just a thought: The corn is the magic ingredient here. It adds creaminess to the soup without actually adding cream (whaaaat, imagine that!).