Tomato Soup

I didn't used to like tomato soup, then I started using it for dipping purposes when I had grilled cheese, but now I have moved up and like it all on its own.  This particular tomato soup is one of my favorites, as it has heavy cream and booze in it as well as 6 tablespoons of butter, where is the bad in that I ask you? (Of course, feel free to ignore that question if you are say, a cardiologist or some other sort of person who is well versed in the effects of heavy cream, butter and booze on your insides)  Anyways, the nice thing about this soup is that it uses canned tomatoes and a bottle of tomato juice, the sort of things that you have in the pantry so it's easy but it tastes like you were slaving away over it all day.  Granted you do have to chop up an onion and let it cook in the butter until it is nice and soft, as Alice Waters taught me there is no rushing that step in making soup unless you want terrible things to happen and pot of soup that is no good.  Otherwise, it's a matter of opening various containers and dumping them in the pot.  This is a Pioneer Woman recipe, and can be found here.  

Start with an onion, chopped.

Then saute it in the butter until it is nice and soft.

Next you add the rest of the ingredients, except the sherry and cream (and the fresh herbs if you are using them, I tend not to and just sprinkle some dried basil and parsley in whenever I remember about them).  Now all you do is simmer it together.  If you are making it ahead of time this is the point where you should stop and stick it in the fridge until about half an hour before you want to eat it, then you simply reheat it and carry on with the recipe.

Take you hot (or reheated) soup and turn off the heat.  Pour in the sherry and cream...

....stir it all together and you are done.  The recipe is here, make it the next cold, snowy day and you wont regret it.