Saturday, July 18, 2009

Tomato Soup in Cutlass Supremes: An exploration of TV OFF and Calling All Cars

Fuzzy, Mello, and I had squeezed into Fuzzy's father's Cutlass Supreme to go egging, something we did a lot in those days. This time, however, we weren't using eggs but tomatoes. Seems Fuzzy's father had recently procured a large quantity of beefsteaks and hadn't thought of removing them before the three of us borrowed the car. For most of the night I sat in the back just enjoying the cool night air and the music playing on the radio. Seeing as the car had no windows in the back, I was left out of the tomato throwing experience. Eventually my role grew stale and I decided to try to toss some from the back seat. I was right behind Fuzzy, who was driving, and I told him to lean forward as I lined up a two story white ranch house in my sights. Fuzzy did just that but instead of my tomato going out the driver side window it hit him in the back of the head and exploded throughout the car. Mello wanted no part of the clean-up so we dropped him off and then by the light of the streetlights Fuzzy and I tried to remove all the tiny seeds from the car. I remember thinking as I cleaned those Cutlass Supreme seats that this would be the last time I misused tomatoes.

And it was.

This week's recipe of the week is unique to write.click.cook.listen for two reasons. First it contains one main ingredient, tomato. Second it can be eaten raw or cooked based on your tastes. I'm going to provide instructions for each:


Summer Xitomatl Soup
Printable Version

-4 tomatoes (beefsteak, cherry, or heirloom)
-1/4 cup of Olive Oil
-1 Tbs. Agave nectar
-1/2 cup fresh basil
-2 cups of water
-croutons (recipe here)


1. Blend tomatoes, oil, agave nectar, and water in blender until smooth.

2. If eating raw, pour soup into four bowls and top with basil. If cooking, pour the soup into a pot and heat over medium until warmed thoroughly. Top with croutons and basil.

Less than fifteen minutes and you're done!

Speaking of cars, two bands I've come across recently that have to do with those monstrosities of metal are TV OFF and Calling All Cars. TV OFF is an electo-pop band from Finland. Their song "Car is on Fire" was featured in June's MAP compilation.



Hailing from Melbourne Calling All Cars is a three piece that plays straight ahead, catchy, rock music. Their first single, "Not Like Anybody", is garnering airplay in Australia and preparing the world for their debut album that should be released later this year.

12 comments:

  1. Monstrosity is an understatement for that car! We had one with a V8 engine. When you passed someone it sounded like a plane at takeoff!

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  2. Nice story. Also, the soup looks amazing!

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  3. Shame on you for throwing tomatoes at houses! Don't let your pupils hear that story. However, the soup sounds good and looks very tasty :)

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  4. Thrifty-Yeah that car was a beast, sucked gas like no other, and not very good for the things we wanted to use it for.

    Becca-Thanks. It tastes really good, when it is warm. I didn't find it quite so appealing when it was raw.

    Jacqueline-I appreciate the comments. I'll chalk the tomato throwing up to being young and dumb.

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  5. I love tomato soups- i love that you can eat this raw or cooked!

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  6. So you don't blanch peel the tomatoes?
    Cool - will give it a try when my toms are ripe. The store bought tom soup is so high in sodium.

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  7. No peeling necessary. I agree, store bought soups are rough because of their sodium content not to mention their general inferiority.

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  8. Thanks Jaime, I like options since what works for me doesn't always work for others.

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  9. Hahahaha about you socking him in the back of the head! LOL!

    And this recipe sounds divine. I love tomato soup, and this one for sure looks like a winner to add to the recipe archives because it looks so simple to make! Thanks for sharing!

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  10. That soup sounds easy to make and tasty. I like anything with fresh basil.

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  11. I know who Mello is...is Fuzzy the obvious third member of your posse? And I've never approved of the name of beefsteak tomatoes.

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  12. Notes...You'd be correct. Not sure that I'd approve of beefsteak either, reminds me too much of beef stick which makes me think...slim jim. They'd do much better to be known as Rosey Reds or something more pleasant sounding.

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