Victoria Hamilton #Guest @recipe #giveaway

Today, I'm super excited to welcome Victoria Hamilton to Mystery Lovers' Kitchen. Victoria has a great recipe and a GIVEAWAY!!!!

*****

Thank you so much to Valerie Burns for hosting me today.

There is only one time of year I enjoy eating tomatoes, and that is right now, from mid August to late September, when our local field tomatoes are luscious, big ripe sweet globes of goodness. At the same moment my herbs are at their best. The basil went crazy this summer, so I’m drying a lot, making bruschetta, and using it in recipes like this Roasted Tomato and Basil soup. I saved this to make on a cold day, and served it up with toasted slices of cheese bread, but I was tempted to make some fresh croutons out of the cheese bread, cutting big hunks, drizzling with olive oil and toasting for a few minutes in the oven.

Maybe next time.

ROASTED TOMATO & BASIL SOUP

Ingredients

3 large field tomatoes – 1 ½ - 2 pounds

3 tbsp olive oil

1 small to medium yellow onion, diced

4 garlic cloves, minced

1 tbsp fresh thyme, minced

1 tsp kosher salt

½ tsp fresh ground pepper

1 - 28 ounce can crushed tomatoes (I use Muir Glen Fire Roasted which have the richest flavor of any canned tomato I’ve used, but use your favorite brand.)

1 Cup fresh basil, roughly chopped

1 tbsp sugar (I used white sugar, but next time I’ll try light brown sugar, which cuts the acidity of tomatoes better, in my opinion.)

2 Cups chicken or vegetable stock (your own, or a commercial brand.)

2/3 to 1 cup of heavy cream (Next time I’ll go for the higher amount. You could substitute with half-and-half, canned milk, regular milk, or if you want to cut out the dairy, the same amount of additional chicken stock.)

*Optional: 3 cloves of roasted garlic. Whenever I’ve got the oven on for anything else, like roasting the tomatoes for this recipe, I roast a head or two of garlic. Slice the top off the garlic bulb, drizzle it with olive oil, grind some coarse pepper and sea salt over it, twist it into some foil and roast for 30 – 40 minutes in a 350 – 375 degree F. oven, then take out and let it cool. Put it in a covered container in the fridge for a few days to a week, squeezing some of the roasted garlic out for recipes or garlic toast.

Directions

1 - Preheat oven to 375°F.

2 - Cut tomatoes into fat slices. I used my thumb to squish out most of the seeds and cut out the core, as well as trimming dark spots and scars on the flesh. Spread the slices on a parchment lined baking sheet. Drizzle with 1 tbsp of the olive oil, and grind fresh black pepper and sea salt over them.

3 - Roast tomato slices for about 45 minutes. When you take them out, set them aside until needed. You could put them in a container at this point to use later, but don’t do this too early.

4 - Heat 2 tbsp olive oil, (or butter if you don’t have olive oil but, I mean, who doesn’t have olive oil?) in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add onion and sauté for about 5 minutes, until translucent and fragrant.

5 - Stir in the garlic, thyme, salt, and pepper. Sauté for another minute.

6 - Add crushed tomatoes, basil, and sugar to the pot. Lower the heat and simmer for about 10 minutes.

7 - Add stock and the roasted tomatoes into the pot. If you are adding roasted garlic - 3 cloves are enough - do it now. Simmer for 30 minutes, stirring every now and then.

8 - Use an immersion – sometimes called a stick - blender to purée the soup. You can blend the soup in a blender in batches if you’re careful (it’s hot!) but an immersion blender makes it simpler!

9 - Stir in the cream, bring back up to heat, but don’t boil. Serve with a grilled cheese sandwich, or croutons, or – as I have – a piece of cheese bread toasted under the broiler.

This is a great way to use the wonderful field tomatoes available at farmers’ markets right now, but I love it because it’s adaptable and could easily be made vegan. Any nice fleshy tomatoes would work well. So… enjoy!

ABOUT SIEVE AND LET DIE

Sieve and Let Die - Vintage Kitchen Mystery #11 – Coming from Beyond the Page October 17th 2023!

It’s October; falling leaves, warm sunshine followed by chilly nights, sweaters and apples and yummy fall foods.

Food columnist Jaymie Müller is busy as usual with work and family, and helping her best friend, Val Nibley, build a catio for Denver, Val’s feline buddy. But everything shudders to a halt when someone with whom Val had a recent confrontation over a prescription is found dead – by

Jaymie and Val! - on the back steps of her pharmacy. Val, suspected of a terrible crime and the subject of gossip and rumor, takes a leave of absence while she and Jaymie investigate; is it murder? And if it is, who did it?

Why was the victim so absent minded lately? And why accuse Val of tampering with medications? They had known each other for decades and in high school were even friends.

Jaymie must rush to clear her best friend before the rumor mill ruins Val’s good name and her whole life in Queensville.

Don’t miss a yummy fall recipe at the end! Sign up for my newsletter at VictoriaHamiltonMysteries.com for information on this book and all my series, my upcoming book blog tour details and future promotions!

AUTHOR VICTORIA HAMILTON 

Victoria Hamilton is the bestselling author of the national bestselling Vintage Kitchen Mysteries and Merry Muffin Mysteries, as well as a the historical Lady Anne Mysteries. She collects vintage kitchenware and bake muffins. She drinks tea and coffee on writing days, and wine other times. It doesn’t do to confuse days. A solitary being, she can be coaxed out of her writing cave for brownies and cat videos.

She started her writing life as Donna Lea Simpson, bestselling author of Regency Romances, paranormal historicals and historical mysteries, and still has a soft spot for the Regency period.

You can find her online at: 

Website: http://www.VictoriaHamiltonMysteries.com (Sign up for her newsletter for all the latest!)

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VictoriaHamiltonMysteryAuthor 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MysteryVictoria

Giveaway!!

What do you like eating/cooking in the fall?  Comment below to enter to win a prize package including my favorite skully teaspoon, Victoria Hamilton Mysteries bookmarks, an ‘I have no shelf control’ book bag, a cute ‘so many books so little time’ keychain and a $25 USD gift certificate from Amazon dot com or Amazon dot ca! Open to Canada and the USA. 

Don't forget to leave your email address so we can reach you! Contest runs from today, Sunday September 10th, to Tuesday, September 12th.