Let’s see… We did all the tomatoes we had which was almost one large cookie sheet full when cut in half. To that we added 2 shallots cut in half long ways then into pieces, maybe 8 garlic cloves, and a handful of carrots all on the same sheet. Sprinkle generously with kosher salt, and add generous drizzle of good olive oil. Then into oven for approx 2 hours at 200F.

Take everything off the cookie sheet and into a large pot or saucepan it goes on medium heat. 3 or 4 cups of chicken broth and let it start to simmer. Once it’s soft enough to blend, hit it with a cup or cup and a half of heavy cream and go to town with the immersion blender. Any liquid would work here but you need something with a little depth and then something with some creamy to it. I bet a vegetable stock and oat milk would work fine. And then we added a few tablespoons of Worcestershire to taste. Finished with a little more heavy cream, fresh cracked black pepper (a must IMO), and a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese.

Mostly that soup is the wild West and I don’t think you can mess it up.

Tomato Soup

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Yield: How many good tomatoes do you have?

• Tomatoes: All the old tomatoes you own
• Aromatics: Up to 1:3 ratio with the tomatoes by weight. Onions, celery, carrots, shallots, fennel, garlic, leeks, bell peppers, ginger, more garlic, broccoli, parsnips
• Herbs: Sure, why not?
• Dairy: How much can your gut handle?

• Roast tomatoes and aromatics until soft and slightly caramelized. Or lightly sauté the aromatics and then add the tomatoes. Or don’t cook anything before blending, I’m not a cop
• Blend tomatoes, aromatics, and herbs. Blend the hell out of them. Blend them like they offended you. Strain into a pot.
• Heat tomato mixture and bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer for five to ten minutes. Season to taste.
• Mount with cream/milk/butter based on your lactose tolerance.

I know this is glib, but tomatoes are a wonder food. If you start with good tomatoes and blend them thoroughly, you end up with good tomato soup. Even the cooking is optional.

It was good! It was a day of cooking… We also canned some jalapeno jelly, I smoked the rest of the jalapenos overnight to make chipotle peppers, and finished smoking/slicing some homemade bacon.

I thought I was going to do more bread today but I’m kinda burnt out for today lol. Work only.

Edit: and wouldn’t you know it the grill burnt out in the night. I guess I’ll be doing chipotle smoking later in the morning.

Bonus Chipotle peppers and homemade turkey nuggets.

I thought to myself like 3 months ago “I should make bread. I can make sourdough, it’s all just flour and water!”.

This is the 2nd attempt which worked but if I were to do it over again I’d probably just buy some damn starter instead of making my own.