Helen's Joy of Cooking Tomato Soup

My tomato plants from the garden decided that they all wanted to ripen at the same time so I decided it was time to make some soup.  As a bridal shower gift from my husband's Aunt, I was passed down my hubby's grandmother's original Joy of Cooking cookbook!! Tells your everything you could need to know, basically a cooking bible. 

I started off by first sauteing together until tender:
2 cups chopped onion
2-3 Carrots chopped
1-2 Bay Leaf

Once tender add:
3 cloves fresh minced Garlic

About one minute after the garlic add:
1 pound fresh tomatoes
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 Tablespoon tomato paste
Handful fresh chopped basil
Salt, fresh ground pepper, pinch or two of white pepper
3-4 cups homemade chicken stock

Bring all ingredients to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 45 minutes.

In the meantime according to the old fashion Joy of Cooking I was to make my own cream.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Melt on low heat 3 tablespoons butter
then add 2 tablespoons flour and whisk to create ruex.
Let the ruex cool, once cooled return to heat and slow add in 1 cup of milk.
Continuosly stir and on a lower heat until the mixture starts to thicken.
Once it starts to thicken place into bakeware and add a studded onion in the middle.
Place in the oven for 20 minutes.

You may ask, "what is  a studded onion:
The French know this as "onion clout"
Clou meaning nail. 
In this case we are taking two small bay leaves and and nailing them to the onion.
The purpose of this is to be able to easily remove the cloves when the cream is ready.

Once the cream has finished cooking add it to the tomato soup. 
Strain the soup and take the veggie remains and add them to a food processor.
Once you have pureed the vegetables, add them back into the strained liquid. 

Of course I have to add my finishing touch of some fresh chopped chives and a little bit of fresh ground pepper!! Enjoy!!

Healthy Broccoli and Cauliflower Soup

 The weather has dropped and got quite cold here in Florida and also the pollen has left us all feeling as if we are sick. My husband and sister were in the mood for soup so I looked in my fridge to see what I had. I recently purchased a bunch of organic cauliflower and broccoli. I decided these two items would be my main ingredients along with some carrots, shallots, red onion, S & P, fresh herbs; rosemary, thyme, sage and chives.

When making vegetable soup I always feel roasting the veggies gives it a more full flavor.
I combine all the ingredients above and toss them with some good olive oil and put them in the oven for 30-45 min.

In the meantime I heat up some homemade chicken stock. In a large stock pot I crisp some prosciutto slices then remove. In the same pot I add some butter and chopped shallots with S & P. Once they start looking translucent I pour in a bit of Sherry wine and let it reduce.

Once the veggies are finished I let them cool then place them in my Ninja blender with some of the heated stock until puréed.

I combine the purée and shallots and add extra stock to the stock pot.

If you want here you can also add a container of fat free Greek yogurt for added protein and great supplement to heavy cream or half and half. Today I just used broth and cream.

To prepare for serving I grated some Gouda cheese then topped it off with left over fresh chopped herbs from the garden that I used when roasting and crumbled the prosciutto all over! Was so delicious and filling!