Love for Food

I had the BIGGEST craving for a grilled cheese yesterday. I think the crisp fall chilly air must have brought it on. Since Thursday is Farmer's Market day in Brooklyn, I picked out a nice smoked cheddar from the dairy man. Normally, I don't venture over to his stall, since I thought he only offers pricey eggs and milk. Recently I discovered he carries a large variety of cheese. It's actually a good deal, and comparable to supermarket cheese prices, score! It's not pasturized but eating cheese quickly has never been a problem :) I love to picture him (he's an older fat man who wears overalls) on a quait farm milking those cows and loving making my cheese. It may be a bit of a stretch but I'm sure it's much healthier than store bought. As much as I love cheese I needed more. What better to go along with grilled cheese than tomato soup. I picked up a ton of tomatoes (yellow, red, and orange) and searched for recipes. I ended up making up my own using ideas from several different recipes. You can either parboil the tomatoes and remove the skin and seeds or do as I did and strain them later on. I also played around with the texture and added a little cornstarch at the end. The perfect meal to come home to on a chilly fall day. I added a teaspoon of some cilantro pesto I made earlier in the week and some cheese. I thought the cliantro might not be ideal but it was a great combo. I made cliantro pesto since basil was skimpy at the FM. The cilantro was big and luscious . It was calling out my name. When I got home I realized I was in over my head with the stuff. Hence the pesto. This soup required a bit of work, and it makes a lot of soup, but you can always feeze some for the days when your too tired to cook.
Ingredients:
8 cups of tomatoes, chopped
4 cups chicken broth
1 cup milk/heavy cream (I used 2%)
salt/pepper (to taste)
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/8 (pinch cloves ground)
3 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons butter
2 onions chopped
3 cloves garlic chopped

Method:

• Heat oil in a stock pot, cook onions for a few minutes add garlic for another minute.
• Add tomatoes, cook for a couple of minutes add ground clove, and chicken broth.
• Simmer for 20 minutes, puree with an immersion blender.
• Sift liquid though a strainer to remove the seeds and skin.
• Rinse out the stock pot. Melt butter in the pot. Add in the flour and whisk together for a couple of minutes.
• Add the soup back in the pot making sure to whisk it so there are no lumps.
• Add salt/pepper and milk

Weight Watcher Points +: 2 per serving