Homemade Cream of Tomato Soup...

Whiteley Creek Homestead B&B

It's really starting to get cold here on the prairie and when that happens, I get a hankerin' for soup.  With windy, gray skies and chilly daytime temps of 44 degrees, I've been thinking a lot about creamy tomato soup.  So tonight, with a five gallon bucket of homegrown tomatoes in the kitchen and supper to fix, I looked up a Cream of Tomato Soup recipe and took a chance on this one from Whiteley Creek Homestead Bed & Breakfast.  I find that  most B&B's in winter country really know how to knock out the cold from your bones with good soup.  This one is no exception.  It is simple and delicious. 
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Homemade Cream of Tomato Soup

 Makes 12 cups (8 - 1 ½ cup servings)

5 tbsp butter (I used 2 tbsp.)
½ cup chopped onion
4 tbsp flour (I used 2 tbsp because pureeing it in a blender thickens it.)
4 cups milk (I used whole milk.)
½ bay leaf (I used 1 whole bay leaf)
1 ½ tsp sugar
1 ½ tsp salt
½ tsp baking soda* (I used 1 tsp because I doubled the amount of tomatoes.)
6 cups (approx) fresh or canned tomatoes (I used 2 – 28 oz cans diced tomatoes plus the juice.)

Melt the butter in a soup pot. Add the onion and cook until the onion is soft and translucent but not browned. Sprinkle the flour over the butter mixture and continue to stir and cook for 1 to 2 minutes. (Because I reduced the butter, the flour will burn if you cook it that long. I just mix the flour into the butter and call it good.) While stirring, slowly pour in the milk. Add the bay leaf, sugar, and salt and continue to cook and stir until slightly thickened. (You’ll only see a slight thickening action because I reduced the amount of flour, so I heated it only hot enough for serving. Do not simmer or boil.) Stir the baking soda into the tomatoes. It will fizz. Add the tomatoes to the milk and bring it back up to serving temperature. Remove from heat and put through a strainer. (I say, "Why strain it? And toss out the tomato chunks? Why?!" For a smooth/chunky combo, allow to cool then puree half of the soup adding it back into the remaining chunky soup in the pot. If you want a smooth consistency without chunks, puree entire mixture, including tomato chunks, in a blender. For average blender container sizes, you'll need to do this in stages.) *Adding baking soda to tomatoes neutralizes their acidity to keep the milk from curdling.
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When I made this soup tonight, I used fresh, chopped tomatoes instead of canned, but I'll use my home-canned tomatoes this winter.  I halved the recipe and added pepper and garlic powder to taste after it was all put together.  I used my stick blender to break up the tomatoes to the consistency that I wanted instead of using a blender.  I think it's way easier than trying to pour hot soup into a regular blender.  
( M E S S )  Adding a little fresh or dried basil to your taste would be another delicious addition to the soup.  All in all, I think this took about 15 minutes to put together including the chopping and the making of grilled cheese sandwiches which, to me, must always go alongside cream of tomato soup --  Winter Comfort Food Supreme!

For the Record:

We took the bucks out of the ewes this past week (10-4).

We received our first snow last week and had a little today too.   It was a light snow that didn't stick to the ground.  There were snow flurries today too but I don't think October snowflakes are quite ripe.  As Lucy from A Charlie Brown Christmas says, "It's too early. I never eat December snowflakes. I always wait until January." 

The vet came to fertility test the sale bulls yesterday.

The 2-year-old heifers got their new ID tags today, and we sorted them into two bunches:  Keepers and For Sale.

Huge flocks of Canada Geese flew over as we were working livestock today.  Wave after wave of V'd geese flew over us, calling to one another, "Fly south!"