Fresh Tomato Soup

If you're in a region of the state that didn't get inundated with rain this season, those green orbs that you've been patiently watching all summer are probably starting to slowly turn from subtle orange to bright red. A sure sign that you're soon to be up to your ears in tomatoes. If you're like me, the first week of tomatoes is an absolute delight, tomato sandwiches, tomato salads, tomato sauce, my husband even eats the tomatoes right off the vine, like an apple. Then the plants seem to go into overdrive and we can't keep up with them! Although I only grow a few tomato plants each year it seems they alway produce more than we can consume and a lot of them end up rotting before we can eat them. That won't be the case this year.

We recently visited one of my good friends and her husband who served this incredibly delicious tomato soup for lunch. After polishing off my second bowl, I asked for the recipe. My friends husband George, who is from Czechoslovakia, proudly produced the recipe. There was only one problem, it was in Czech! After a good laugh his wife translated it for me and also informed me that she harvests many of her tomatoes each year just for this soup and then freezes it to enjoy during the winter months.

I immediately thought of the readers of WV Living Food and wanted to share this recipe. How nice will it be to pull a delicious tomato soup out of the freezer on a cold winter night and enjoy a little bit of summer along side a piping hot grilled cheese sandwich? Once you taste this soup, you'll never eat tomato soup from a can again! But don't save it all for winter, enjoy some now along side a great summer salad. ~~ Joy Bell

George's Tomato Soup

Ingredients:

• 6 large tomatoes
• 1/2 cup water
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 large onion/finely chopped
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 1 small cube chicken or vegetable bouillon
• 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
• salt, pepper and brown sugar to taste
• parsley/finely chopped

Directions:

• Place tomatoes in boiling water for 5 - 10 minutes, remove from water, remove skin, puree in blender. Add 1/2 cup of water to the mixture and set aside (should produce approximately 8 cups of tomato mix).

• In a large pot, melt butter, add onion and cook until translucent. Add flour to the cooked onion and cook while stirring for an additional 1 - 2 minutes.Add the tomato mixture continuing to stir to avoid the creation of lumps.

• Season with soy sauce, salt, pepper and brown sugar to taste. Boil for 20 minutes, during the last minute of boiling, add the finely chopped parsley.

Cobb Salad

Ingredients:

• 4 cups romaine lettuce/chopped
• 2 grilled boneless chicken breasts/chopped
• 1/4 cup crumbly blue cheese
• 5 slices crisp bacon/crumbled
• 3 hard cooked eggs/chopped
• 1 medium tomato/diced
• 1 avocado/diced
• 1/2 red onion/diced

Directions:

• Place lettuce on a serving platter.
• Layer remaining ingredients on top of lettuce.
• Serve with your favorite dressing.