French Onion & Beef Strudel and Creamless Creamy Tomato Soup

 

The food we had tonight was cooked yesterday and Chris had to heat it up when he got home. That is how we roll. I have bit of a commute so to prepare dinner when I get home would result in eating at 8 or 9 o'clock, which is too close to bed time!

I have been making this French Onion and Beef Strudel since March of 1994. I found the recipe in one of those cookbooks that they sold at the check out counter. The original recipe calls for an 8 ounce can of Crescent Rolls. I had Phyllo dough in the freezer so I used that instead. The results, well lets just say there is only a little left over.

Ingredients-
1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup butter
1 1/2 cups white onions, thinly sliced
6 ounces beef sirloin, sliced 1/8-inch thick
1 teaspoon flour
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 cup beef broth
1 (8 ounce) can refrigerated crescent dinner rolls

Method -
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
In a small bowl combine mozzarella cheese and 1/4 Parmesan cheese. Set aside.
Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onions. Cook and stir until the onions are a rich, golden-brown color. Remove onions with a slotted spoon and set aside, leaving dripping in pan.
Add beef to skillet. Cook and stir until evenly browned; 2-3 minutes. Return onions and any juice to skillet. Add flour, brown sugar, cumin, salt, pepper, and beef broth. Cook and stir (scraping bottom of pan) for 5 minutes or until almost all the liquid is absorbed.
Grease a cookie sheet. Separate crescent rolls into 8 triangles. Slightly overlap long sides of 2 triangles together to make one large triangle; press to seal. Repeat until you have 4 large triangles. Place triangles in a row, all pointing the same direction and overlapping, on the cookie sheet. Press to seal. Spoon onion mixture down the center in 1-1/2“ wide strip, leaving about 1” at top and bottom. Sprinkle with the cheese mixture. Bring side points of crescent rolls over the filling to create a braid-like appearance. seal ends. Sprinkle with 2 Tbsp. Parmesan cheese.
Bake for 15-20 minutes or until deep golden brown.

And there was the Tomato Soup, I always am afraid we might not have enough for dinner (this is something I inherited from my Mom!). The recipe was from The Complete Cooking For Two Cookbook. This was perfect with strudel and I have a portion leftover for lunch. I only made a couple of changes in the original recipe. I left out the garlic and chives.

My version of Creamless Creamy Tomato Soup, from The Complete Cooking For Two Cookbook.

Ingredients -
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 small onion chopped
1 (28-oz) cam whole peeled tomatoes
2 slices of Italian bread, crusts removed, torn into small pieces
2 tsp. brown sugar
1/1 cup chicken broth
1 tbsp brandy
Salt and pepper

Method -
Heat 1 tbsp oil in medium saucepan over medium heat until shimmering. Add onion and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in tomatoes and their juice and mash with potato masher unil no pieces are large than 2 inches.
Stir in bread and sugar, bring to simmer, and cook until bread is saturated and starts to break down, about 5 minutes. Process soup using immersion blender or regular blender with remaining 1 tbsp oil until smooth, about 2 minutes. Return soup to saucepan.
Stir in broth and brand and bring to brief simmer. Adjust soup consistency with extra broth as needed. Season with salt and pepper.