You Say Tomato, I Say Yum!

With the colder weather settling in, we've been making a variety of soups lately.  Since we had some heirloom tomatoes from the share, we decided to make a Fall version of our summer tomato soup and grilled cheese picnic.

We started by sweating out some onions and garlic in butter.  We also threw in a sprig of thyme and a bay leaf.  You can just throw the whole sprig in there.  The herbs will fall off the stem as it cooks, and then you can just pull out stem.

While the garlic and onions were cooking down, I quartered the tomatoes.  It doesn't matter how you cut them, though the smaller you the cut them, the faster they'll cook down.  

We added them to the pot, along with about half a can of San Marzano tomatoes, and some tomato paste.  As the fresh tomatoes start to cook down and soften, you can squish them with your spoon or potato masher.

Be sure to season your soup with salt and pepper.  We also added in some dried parsley and Italian seasoning since we didn't have any other fresh herbs on hand.  Let the flavors cook together for at least 10 minutes.  Then we just used our immersion blender to puree the soup and give us a nice, smooth consistency.

Once it was pureed, we let it simmer on the stove while we assembled our grilled cheeses.  We used a combination of manchego and gouda, along with a few slices of soppressata.  To help melt the cheese, cover your pan with a lid to create some steam.

It's a quick and delicious meal for those cool Fall nights.

And don't forget the best part...dunking your grilled cheese in the tomato soup!

Hey, Ho! Chorizo!

I know we've been a little quiet over here at 2 Hungry Hearts, but we've been trying to unpack and dig ourselves out from underneath all these moving boxes.  We managed to tackle the kitchen first, and make enough space so that we could start cooking again.  Fortunately the timing worked out pretty well since we're in between CSA share seasons, and have another couple weeks before the Fall CSA starts up.

To christen our new kitchen, we decided to whip up a quick and easy frittata.  Frittatas are a great way to clean out the fridge and use up those little bits of veggies that you have left in your fridge.  We went with a Spanish-inspired frittata, filling ours with chorizo, kale and manchego cheese.  To compliment the frittata, we made some purple potato homefries and a simple salad.

We got the potatoes going first, dicing them up along with some onions and garlic.  You can throw them all in the pan together and let them cook up.  It will take a little while for the potatoes to get crisp on the outside, so you'll want to start these first.  We cooked ours in a little olive oil, and added some salt, pepper, crushed red pepper, and some smoked paprika, which paired quite nicely with the chorizo.

So while your potatoes are cooking, you can get to work on the frittata.  It's best to use a pan that you can also stick in the oven.  We started by browning up our chorizo.

Once that was cooked, we removed the meat from the pan, poured out some of the excess grease, and then tossed in our kale.

While the kale was sauteing, I whipped up about 7 eggs and grated in some manchego cheese.  As soon as the kale was wilted, we added the chorizo back in, and added the egg mixture.  Once the eggs have set in the bottom of the pan, you'll want to pop the whole pan into the oven.  The twist here was that we added some sliced tomatoes on top and let them roast in the oven, along with some extra cheese!

After about 8 minutes, our frittata was cooked through, and we were ready to eat!

The smokiness of the chorizo was balanced out nicely by the acidity of the roasted tomato.  It was a quick and easy meal that would also make an excellent brunch item.

Outdoor Flicks & Picnics!

As you may have seen on Facebook last night, we had a delicious summer picnic spread that we enjoyed while taking in an outdoor movie (if you didn't see it, you should "Like" our Facebook page!).  One of the things I love about summer in DC is that on any night of the week, you can see an outdoor movie.  Most neighborhoods are jumping on the wagon, and you're sure to find at least 1 movie each week that you want to see.  As foodies, we had to go above and beyond a bucket of fast food chicken or prepared food from the grocery store.  We prepared an awesome spread for movie without going overboard like this:

One of the things I'm not a huge fan of when it comes to summer in DC, is the sweltering, humid weather.  As soon as I step outside, I feel sweaty and gross, and the last thing I want to do is stand over a stove, or in front of a hot oven.  The perfect solution is a cold soup!  And since we picked up a ton of tomatoes in this week's share, gazpacho was the natural choice.

For a little guidance, we found this recipe.  As always, we put our own spin on it.  But to get you started, gather all your veggies, a good knife, a big bowl, and get to chopping!  Make sure you collect all the seeds and juices that may leach out from your veggies as you're cutting them.  That will help thin out your soup.  I left the skins on all of the veggies, except for the cucumber.  He was the only guy that got peeled.  Because we're both huge fans of garlic, we added about 5 cloves.  And since we had a jalapeno on hand, we chopped that up, as opposed to using hot sauce, as the recipe called for.


Once you're done chopping, you'll have this beautiful bowl of fresh summer veggies!  The recipe instructs you to just get your hands dirty, and squish all the veggies together, but I don't think that's an ideal method, considering the peppers and onion aren't as soft as the tomatoes.  Plus, we wanted more of a soup consistency, as opposed to a chunky salsa consistency.  So I pulled out the immersion blender and got to work.  It didn't take long to break down all the veggies either.

Here's where you really need to taste and add seasonings, as needed.  I started with salt, pepper, and juice of half the lemon.  I started out conservative on the lemon but ended up using the whole thing.  Give it another whirl with the blender, and taste again.  If it's not spicy enough, add another jalapeno, or a splash of hot sauce.  I also threw in the balsamic and red wine vinegars, olive oil, and a splash of worcestershire sauce to balance out the sweetness of the tomatoes.


To top it all off, we threw in a bunch of fresh cilantro and parsley.  Again, blend it all up and taste it to make sure the flavor is right where you want it.  Then just pop it in the fridge to chill until you're ready to eat.


No tomato soup would be complete without a grilled cheese sandwich to go with it.  But we couldn't just go with any ol' grilled cheese.  We had to step up our game for all of you! So we chose a nice baguette for our bread, some prosciutto, humboldt fog cheese, and some arugula.

As with any other sandwich, just start building.  I failed to put cheese on both sides of the bread initially, and they wouldn't stick together, so it's in your best interest to do this right off the bat.  The humboldt fog is a mold-ripened goat cheese, but it has a little less tang and a little more smokiness than a typical goat cheese.  It's somewhat soft and crumbly, but it was easy enough to spread on the bread, and melted into the meat and arugula.  With your sandwiches assembled, melt some butter in a pan, and get to toasting!

If you're packing these treats up for a picnic, let the sandwiches cool down a bit before wrapping them in foil, or putting them in a plastic container.  You don't want them to sweat and get all soggy.

All that was left was to pop some popcorn (truffle parmesan popcorn, that is!), throw a couple beers in the cooler, and a couple peaches for dessert!

Le Diplomate

Lately we've done a good job of visiting new restaurants and crossing them off our ever growing list of places to try.  Le Diplomate was one of those places, and it certainly lived up to all the hype!

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Walking into the restaurant, you're transported to a Parisian bistro, filled with globe lights, a checkered tile floor, and the aroma of freshly baked breads.  They also have several tables outside for you to enjoy some al fresco dining.

Once seated, we began to peruse the menu, filled with traditional French bistro fare.  We were presented with a bread basket, filled with an assortment of breads, to whet our appetites.  We decided to start the meal with their selection of 7 cheeses that included a goat cheese, 2 varieties of brie, a bleu cheese, and a couple semi-hard cheeses.  Overall, they were quite tasty, and a perfect way to kick off the meal.  Like any French restaurant worth its sel, La Diplomate has a wine list that doesn't disappoint.  There is a wide selection of French bottles, and there are some exquisite choices by the glass as well.  Our server was helpful in recommending both a red and a white to pair with our meal.  Being this was French cuisine we went with French wines.

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For our entrees, I chose the moules frites, prepared in the mariniere style.  It is a traditional white wine sauce, that had great added flavor from fresh thyme and bay leaves, as well as some butter to round out the broth. My only complaint is that they left the sprigs of thyme and the bay leaves in the broth.  The frites were perfectly crisp on the outside, and fluffy on the inside, just the way fries should be.

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Justin went with the Monday night special, veal sweetbreads, as his entree.  They were served on a bed of greens.  They were really flavorful, but he enjoyed the ones at the Red Hen more.  Our dining companions enjoyed the steak frites and the beef bourguignon, commenting that they were both delicious dishes as well.

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Dinner was rounded out by a couple of desserts.  We couldn't visit a French restaurant without trying their creme brulee, and it didn't disappoint.  The portion was pretty large, and easy to share amongst several people.  The top was a perfect golden brown, while the inside was extremely light and creamy.  We also shared the apple tarte tatin.  The apples were nice and carmalized, yet still had some bite to them, while the pastry of the tarte was very light and flaky.

Overall, it was a delicious meal, though the service was a bit slow.  They definitely weren't trying to rush us through our meal, which I liked, but it could've been paced a tad bit faster.  The food itself lived up to all the rave reviews the restaurant had received upon opening, though the atmosphere really stole the show.  You truly feel like you're on some cafe set from a French film.  Even for a Monday night it was very lively.  This isn't a romantic spot per se, but a great place to enjoy some authentic French food with some friends over a bottle of wine or two.  We will definitely be back to check out brunch or some of the other nightly specials.