Speedy Tomato Vegetable Soup

Margo Oliver was an iconic Canadian food journalist, who published in the Weekend magazine we'd get with the newspaper on, well, the weekend!

I googled Margo Oliver, and found a delightful blog of recipes clipped and saved by a soul as busy as I have been over the years ...

I copied this recipe into the "green cookbook" a good twenty-five years ago, but hadn't made it in at least a decade. A cold rainy day not long ago called for soup, and this came back to mind. It's so basic, so quick and so good.

Yes, the photo is of an Andy Warhol painting; many don't know what Consommé is, so how better to show it?

See below for an even simpler, very elegant clear soup to serve at dinner parties (yay! people are having dinner parties again!)


Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp. butter
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 2 stalks celery, sliced medium (cut the stalks lengthwise first if they're wider than an inch)
• 10-oz can consommé (that's the small, "normal" size)
• 1 cup frozen mixed vegetables
• 1 cup water
• 1/4 tsp. salt (or none, this is an old recipe when salt went into everything)
• 1 c. canned* tomatoes (I buy diced or crushed; if whole, crush or cut them in the can with a potato masher or knife)
• 1/8 tsp. black pepper
• 1 bay leaf, crumbled (I just break it into two or three pieces)

*(one cup of tomatoes isn't a lot, and we usually have the big 28-oz cans, so I usually use the whole big can anyway... and two consommé cans... and more vegetables :-)

Instructions

Heat butter in medium saucepan over medium heat. Add onions, stir 2 minutes. Add celery, stir one minute. Add remaining ingredients. Simmer until vegetables are tender, 10-15 minutes. Serves 3. Doubles readily.

Bonus! SUPER EASY ELEGANT SOUP FOR DINNER PARTIES

• Consomme, 1 can
• Tomato juice or V8 juice, 10 oz.
• Lemon, scrubbed clean in cold water then sliced ever-so-thinly

Empty can of consommé into a saucepan. Pour tomato juice or V8 juice into the empty consommé can, then add that to the saucepan. Heat on medium-high, but don't boil.

Ladle into soup bowls and float a lemon slice on each. Serves 4 as an appetizer.

Cheese Dreams

A Christmas morning tradition now, I grew up with these as a various-meals concoction.

Originally, they were made with hamburger buns, but Mom switched to English Muffins, and that's much better. I have made them at Pathfinder and Brownie camps, mostly without onion. They're now a tradition with my old Brownie group!

Long experience and fiddling has shown that cutting the toppings into smaller bits means less struggling to cut in half, and to bite. These are to be eaten by hand and served warm. Cut with a large pizza cutter.

Ingredients*

• English muffins, regular or extra crispy, but not whole wheat. Split
• Bacon (streaky), preferably maple smoked
  
• Ripe tomato, sliced moderately, then cut into quarters.
• Process cheese slices, regular thickness
• White onion, sliced moderately and chopped into 1/2 inch bits

*How much of each? People will eat more than they think. So go for at least 2 Cheese Dreams per person.
*Each Cheese Dream takes 1 slice of cheese, 1/2 English muffin, 1 slice of bacon, 1/2 slice tomato, 1/2-1/4 slice onion

Instructions 

Cook bacon until almost done but still soft, then cut into thirds. Place English muffin halves cut side up on wire rack on cookie sheet. Cover each with cheese slice. Top with combination of toppings, but in this order from cheese up:

• tomato
• onion
• bacon

Broil at least 6 inches from broiler 2-3 minutes. Watch them; they'll burn easily.