Friday Night Dinner: Creamy Sun Dried Tomato Soup & Balsamic Pear Salad

It's Friday! It's the one night of the week I can chill and wait up for my husband who works evenings. Friday night dinner is always special, because it's the one meal of the week I am guaranteed to have some quality time with my husband - even if I have to wait up until 9 or 10 to do it!

So tonight I made Creamy Sun Dried Tomato Soup & Balsamic Pear Salad.

My husband loves soup, so I decided to try my hand at my version of tomato basil soup. 

For the soup I used:

1 jar of sun dried tomatoes

1/2 red onion

1 tbsp basil

2 cans of tomato paste

1 can of diced tomatoes

1 can of diced tomatoes with green chilies

2 TBSP of sugar

1c half & half

Salt & Tony's Creole Seasoning to taste

First, I chopped my red onion and used my blender to chop the sun dried tomatoes. Then I started heating them in a pot on medium high until the onions became soft and caramelized slightly. 

I added my tomatoes and tomato paste, and heated it evenly. 

I used my immersion blender (that my wonderful hubby got me for Christmas) to make it a little less chunky. I usually like my tomato soup thick, though.

I added the half & half to the mixture and let it simmer.

But what would tomato soup be without bread and cheese??

For my crostini I sliced a loaf of soft French bread (not a baguette since this will be toasted). I sliced the ends of the loaf very thin to serve alongside my salad, and I cut the largest portion into thick slices. 

For my topping, I grated pepper jack cheese into thin pieces and placed it onto my bread slices and put them in the oven. (You may want to save this step for a couple of minutes before serving.)

After 2-3 minutes on Broil in the oven, they came out crisp and golden!

It was delicious!!

For the Balsamic Pear Salad:

I mixed spinach greens with romaine lettuce first. I chopped up some Priester's pecans (they are so big and delicious!) and sliced half of the remaining red onion to garnish the greens. 

I sliced a little under half of a large cucumber for the salad, and placed small pear halves on the plate along with the tiny crostini slices I had made. Then, I finished it with a balsamic vinaigrette.

On a whim: Since I had cucumber and red onion left, I decided to make some pickled cucumbers for later tonight or tomorrow. 

In a bowl (with a lid) I mixed vinegar, water and sugar to taste (1 c water, 1-1/2 c vinegar, 1/4 c sugar).

I sliced the remaining cucumber as thin as I could, and added them to the vinegar mixture. I cut the red onion into slivers and added it to the bowl. 

I sealed the finished product and set it in the refrigerator to marinate for at least a couple of hours.