Dominick's International: Tomato Soup

If you know anything about me - anything at all! - you'll know that I love to cook and bake.  The more I can do at home, controlling what I put into my dishes and what my family eats, the happier we all are.  When given the opportunity to participate in a culinary challenge with Dominick's, highlighting some of the new international foods they are now carrying, I jumped all over it.

I took a deep breath and crossed my fingers as I read what my two mystery ingredients would be.  I got Dell' Alpe extra virgin olive oil and Dell' Alpe imported canned pear tomatoes.  To say I was happy that I got ingredients that go together is putting it mildly.  But... they almost go too well together.  I use tomatoes and olive oil constantly.

I thought and thought and tried to come up with something creative.  Something unique.  And then I remembered that when we went to Medieval Times, Mister Man enjoyed tomato soup for the first time in his life.  Bingo - I need to foster that enjoyment of tomatoes in a healthy and yummy form.

So I decided to make a simple tomato soup that really features the Dell' Alpe tomatoes.  And it was awesome.  Serve it up with a little bread, and everyone was thrilled.

Tomato Soup featuring Dell' Alpe evoo and Dell' Alpe pear tomatoes

Ingredients:
1 white onion
2 T Dell' Alpe extra virgin olive oil
3 cloves garlic
2 T flour
3 cups chicken broth (or vegetable to make it vegan)
1 28 ounce can Dell' Alpe imported canned pear tomatoes
1 T tomato paste
2 T sugar*
salt and pepper to taste
10-15 fresh basil leaves

*Depending on your tomatoes and tomato paste, you may need to adjust this a little to get to the taste you want, usually just a little more sugar.

Directions:
Preheat a large pot.  Chop your onion while it's heating.  Once it's fully heated, add the olive oil, then add the onion.  Cook over medium heat for 5-7 minutes, until the onions are translucent but not browned.

As the onion is cooking, prepare your garlic.  To help keep it from burning, you don't want to cut it up.  Instead, smash it with the flat of your knife.  Once you smash it hard, you can just pluck the peel off, easy peasy.  Add the garlic to the onion once the onion is pretty much done.  You just want the garlic to get fragrant.  Go ahead and add the flour, stirring to ensure that it is evenly coating the onions and garlic, and let it cook for two minutes.

Add the chicken stock and canned tomatoes to the onion and garlic mixture.  Make sure you're using good tomatoes, like the Dell' Alpe imported canned pear tomatoes, because they will be the focus of your soup.

How do you know you have good tomatoes?  Seriously, take a look at how gorgeous these tomatoes are!

Add the tomato paste and sugar, as well as 1 t of salt and maybe 1/2 t of pepper.  Turn the heat down so that it is just simmering.  You don't want this to boil.  Cover your pot and cook it for 30-40 minutes at a simmer so that everything starts to break down.

After that 30-40 minutes, puree your soup.  If you have an immersion blender, you're set.  If not, buy one but use your regular blender in the interim.  If blending in a blender, blend in batches and don't fill the container more than one-third full.  Use a kitchen towel and hold the top on, as blending hot liquids will create pressure that could force the top off.  Keeping it fairly empty and holding the top on helps a ton.  Or ... that immersion blender means you can do it all at once and in the same pot so no extra dishes.  Puree it completely.

Serve it immediately.  Chiffonade the basil and use it as a garnish or add some shredded Parmesan for an extra flavor boost.  The wee ones weren't interested in these accouterments, but I'd definitely go for them.  This will keep in the fridge for a few days, and it tastes better the second day once all the flavors have had a chance to meld.

Interested in making this Dell' Alpe highlighted soup?  Or exploring other international options Dominick's now carries?  I have a $50 Dominick's gift card to give away.

This one?  Super easy to enter.  You must tweet what your favorite international ingredient or dish is, using @Dominicks and @honestandtruly in the tweet along with the hashtag #DominicksIntl.  The only caveat is that you can't use the Twitter handles or hashtag as the first word in your tweet (e.g., "@honestandtruly @Dominick's I love..." doesn't work; "Hey @honestandtruly and @Dominicks" does work).

Tweet by Sunday October 7 at 7pm Central, and I'll choose a winner from eligible entries at that time.  You do need to be a US resident and 18 years of age or older.  Only one tweet per person is eligible.  You will need to provide me with your contact information within 24 hours so that you can be sent the gift card if you are chosen by random.org or another winner will be chosen.

Good luck!

In the interest of full disclosure, I received a gift card to purchase ingredients for my dish.  I was not provided with any additional compensation.  As always, all opinions expressed remain my own.

June Dairy Month–Free Movie Promotion #CBias

I love getting rewarded when I shop.  It’s nice to know what I’m appreciated, of course, but I always feel like I’m getting something more than I deserve – and it feels good.  When I shopped at Dominick’s last week and bought $40 worth of participating dairy products, I got that something special.  I’m taking the wee ones to the movies on Safeway!  And while I bought all my dairy products in one day, you have the whole month of June to accumulate that $40 towards your two free movie tickets.

How?  It was easy.  I won’t call it super easy, but it was easy.  Just use your Safeway card (Dominick’s, Vons, Tom Thumb, Genuardi’s, Randalls, Pavillions, or Carrs) to purchase $40 of participating dairy products now through June 30.  In my store, most – but not all – of the items were marked with a little tag that said they were part of the June dairy month promotion. 

Lucky me, this even included Klondike Bars and items Little Miss could eat like all the Silk products in addition to your usual cheeses and yogurts.  I did have a couple items that were supposed to count towards the promotion that didn’t, so watch your receipt to make sure you are getting the items you need to get to that $40 threshold.  Smart store – they put your total earned dollars on the bottom of the receipt so you know how close you are.  Even better?  You earn two free movie tickets for every $40 of participating dairy products you purchase, so you can head to the movies more than once if you’re so inclined.  After all, there are so many ways to use dairy.  It isn’t just drinking milk – there are all sorts of awesome recipes you can cook up.

I will admit that I was a little hesitant to do this at the self-checkout lane at first because I was concerned that I would miss the voucher for my two free movie tickets.  But since the other lines were long and the self-checkouts were empty, I thought for a second and remembered where the Catalina machines (I even know what the coupon printers are called now) are and that I always notice when they print, so I stepped over there and helped myself.  And yes, my coupon printed perfectly, and I didn’t forget to take it – how could I?

Shhhh I haven’t told the wee ones that we’re going to see a movie yet.  Seeing a movie is a big deal for them, and it is by far one of their favorite things to do.  If I tell them now that we’re going to see Ice Age: Continental Drift in theaters, I won’t stop hearing about it until July 13 when the movie finally appears in theaters (and no, I didn’t have to go look up that date; I have that one memorized).  We’ve seen all the previous Ice Age movies – including the Christmas special – but none of them have been in theaters.  I know already that when we see it, Grandma and Grandpa will have to be invited… because the wee ones would never want to have such a fun experience and not share it with Grandma and Grandpa.  In fact, we may wait a couple weeks after the opening and make this Little Miss’s birthday celebration.  We debated actually having her birthday party be seeing Ice Age 4 with her friends, but it’s too hard to do a birthday party in July and August around here because too many people go on vacation.

Every time we go to the movies, it’s special.  I remember the first time I took Mister Man to see a movie.  He insisted that we had to bring Grandpa with us, too, knowing that Little Miss was too young to go, although he was sad that she was missing out.  When we next went to the movies, Little Miss joined us, and the wee ones refused to step inside the theater doors until I called Grandpa and Grandpa and asked if they wanted to join us.  Movies are a family event in our household, and they truly are an event.  I’m a little conservative when it comes to what movies the wee ones watch, so there aren’t too many that we’ve seen.  That said, seeing a movie is all the more special because they know it doesn’t happen all the time, and they look forward to every moment.  And then during the car ride home, I hear nothing but the recap of the plot and their favorite scenes and reenactments and the like.  Twenty minutes later when we pull into the driveway, they’re still going – and I’m still smiling because they are sharing their joy and we’ve created yet another special family memory.

The Ice Age movie has been on our radar for awhile.  We first saw a preview for it last November when we saw the Muppet Movie for my birthday (and yes, all of us were there, including my parents).  It wasn’t even a question of whether we would see the movie or not.  The wee ones turned to me as the trailer finished and looked at my with huge puppy dog eyes and melted into grins once they saw me nod.  We saw posters for it again this spring when we went to see the Pirates movie with the wee ones, and I am pretty sure they spent fifteen minutes after the movie surrounding the three dimensional display talking about the characters and who was fighting whom and what they thought was happening and who their favorites were and the like.  And the date of July 13 was mentioned at least fifteen kajillion times.  So yeah, I think this will be a good surprise for them.

While I can’t wait to go see Manny and Scrat and everyone else in theaters, I know we can’t wait too long.  The voucher for the free movie tickets expires on July 31, and the certificate for the tickets expires August 31 – but we’ll have enjoyed our movie and popcorn long before then.  Redeeming the voucher you receive is easy.  You don’t present it at the theater but instead log on to a redemption site and follow a few easy steps to print off your movie ticket certificates.  And while I chose to wait to see Ice Age: Continental Drift, these tickets are valid for any movie in theaters just in case this movie isn’t your cup of tea.




And maybe I’ll have to head back to make some more dairy purchases to earn another set of two movie tickets as part of #JuneDairyMovies.  After all that super easy meal I made with the dairy was a hit with my husband, and I have to make it again….

I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and Safeway.  As always, all opinions expressed are my own. #CBias #SocialFabric