Thursday, May 3, 2012

Recipe: Booze-y, Creamy Roasted Tomato Basil Soup, and playing with Snapguide

averagejanecrafter_tomato_soup
Several months ago, my mom visited and made some of the tastiest soup I'd ever had. Better yet, it was fresh and healthy and made my house smell heavenly. I wanted to give it a try a few weeks ago, but - of course - had to add a bit of ... decadence in the form of wine and cream. Either way is delicious, so you can follow the recipe as-is, or omit the wine and cream when you're trying to be a little healthier.
Recipe: Booze-y, creamy roasted tomato basil soup
I'm including the recipe below, but I'm also going to introduce a new app I've been playing with lately so you can easily view the recipe and step-by-step pictures on your iPhone, iPad or desktop. Snapguide is a cool DIY tutorial app that allows you to easily upload pictures right from your iPhone, add text and publish with just a few click. Please note, this is not a sponsored review. I've just been playing on the app on my own and thought I'd share my experience. Screenshots below are from the iPhone app and desktop versions of Snapguide.

Snapguide Phone Shot
Snapguide Screenshot
My "real" camera died a while ago, and my old iPhone (3G folks!) took terrible pictures. Honestly, that plus work constraints meant I wasn't able to crank out fun tutorials as often as I'd like to. I recently finally upgraded my phone, and instantly started wanting to snap away for projects. It's still kind of a pain, though, to upload the pictures, edit, post, etc. I kept thinking there had to be an easier way ... and there is. With Snapguide, you can create a tutorial right on your phone and publish it. I did the one for the soup while my son (literally) sat on my lap on the couch and played a video game on the tv. Aside from a few crashes when I tried to upload more than 3 pictures at a time, it was smooth, intuitive and really easy to use. And reading my tutorial and others is nice and easy - just swipe through each step. I like it!

Snapguide Phone Shot
Snapguide Screenshot
I do wish, though, that they would have an option to embed the tutorial into your web site. If I'm going to create a tutorial, I'd like the traffic to at least be - primarily - to my blog. That will be the kicker. I think for now, my compromise is introducing the tutorial here and then linking over to Snapguide.
Snapguide Phone Shot
Snapguide screen shot
What do you think? Have you tried Snapguide? Check it out and see what you think. I like the variety of projects - food, makeup, home projects .... even dog tricks! I'll be curious to see if/how crafters embrace this new platform...
Snapguide Screenshot
Recipe: Booze-y, Creamy Roasted Tomato Basil Soup

Ingredients:
(please note, the ingredients and measurements are general here. It varies depending on how much you can fit in your baking dish and what you have on hand. Go flexible, folks!) 

7-8 Roma tomatoes
7-8 small sweet peppers -OR- 2 1/2 red bell peppers
3/4 red onion
1 head of garlic - you'll need 6-8 cloves, depending on how much you like garlic
Olive oil
Balsamic Vinegar
Coarse Sea Salt
Pepper
4 large leaves of fresh basil
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup dry white wine of your choice
1 small can of tomato paste
3/4 of a 32oz box of vegetable broth
Immersion blender (if you don't have one of these, I highly recommend grabbing one from Amazon or Zappos. If you can't, be sure to read about blending hot soups in a standard blender)

Now go fetch the tutorial on Snapguide and let me know what you think!

9 comments :

  1. That's a really cool tool... and the recipe looks tasty too! BUT sigh, alas there is not Android version of Snapguide so I will have to pass, being not quite so cool as you iphone users!

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    Replies
    1. Oh! That *is* a bummer.... My bet is that they will have an Android version soon.

      Are you able to open the recipe in a browser on your phone? If not, let me know and I'll just get the whole thing posted here! :)

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    2. I asked them about an Android version over on Twitter yesterday. Sadly, they that for now they are focusing on iOS right now, because they are a small team. I'm hopeful, though, that they will do well and be able to grow in to Android!

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  2. I am so going to make this! Thanks for posting!

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  3. Hiya Rachel! Looks like yummy soup, perfect for our not so warm spring over here. Snapguide looks cool too. Thanks for showing us.
    Jx

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  4. I shall have to try Snapguide - thank you. Great recipe, I can't wait to try it and I love your turquoise hand-held blender, it's very nice!

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  5. So from one who does not happen to own a hand held device - thank you for sharing the recipe so i could enjoy it on the desktop!!

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  6. Ooh, this looks so good! I bought my immersion blender just for tomato soup after TWO failed attempts at using a regular blender and burning my hand, twice! Maybe I shouldn't admit that...

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Thank you so much for your comments! I read every single one of them. I do my best to respond when I can.

Have fun and be nice! :)
XOX
Rach