I made this soup yesterday. It was a weird, kind of grumpy day.

I had to make two batches of this banana sweet potato bread I am going to share in the next couple days, (because I forgot like half the ingredients the first time.)

While I was looking for my lost camera card, I found an unpaid parking ticket from like 6 months ago. That can’t be good.

I watched myself on tv and thought “what the hell happened to my hair!?” As my sister said: “that is a situation!” It’s so bad that by the time this is posted, I will have already had it cut again. Can one person have a bad hair year? At least I have a good sense of humor.

And if you are not already depressed by me- check out this weather. That should do it.

But then little Coco-bean walked through the door after her first haircut with her grandma. She was wearing pink cowboy boots and she made me smile ear to ear.
I had almost the same haircut when I was little!

Oh yeah, this soup.

I was going to make a big batch of minestrone. Then I realized I didn’t have any celery because I put it all in my new juicer (more on that later.) Well, I couldn’t make minestrone without my celery, so I stared at the onions and garlic already cooking, and looked at the 2lbs of grape tomatoes that I bought at Costco, and decided I was making tomato soup. Then I saw a big chunk of stale bread left over and thought I would throw that in.

Then I realized I didn’t have any basil, so I went to the store to get it. Then I realized that I could have just bought the darn celery and made the minestrone if was going to bother driving to the store. But then I tasted my soup and it was so good that I finally just got over being grumpy. The end.

Tomato Bread Soup, serves 6
-4 Tbs butter
-1 yellow onion
-3 cloves garlic minced
-2 lbs tomatoes, (if you don’t have fresh, use crushed or whole canned tomatoes)
-4 cups chicken (or vegetable) broth
-1Tbs dried oregano
-1 pinch red pepper flakes
-1 cup basil leaves, loosely packed
-3-4 cups rustic bread, torn into pieces (stale is juuust fine!)
-Kosher Salt to taste
-Finely shredded Parmesan cheese for garnish

1) In a large pot, melt the butter over medium heat and add the onions and a sprinkle of salt.

2) Let the onions sweat until soft and tender, about 5 minutes.

3) Add the garlic and cook until soft.

4) Add the tomatoes and stir everything together. Cover with the broth and add the oregano.

5) Turn the heat to low and put a lid on the pot. Simmer the soup for about 20-30 minutes or until the tomatoes (if fresh) are bursting from their skins.

6) I use an immersion blender and puree until the soup is not completely smooth, but the tomatoes are all broken up.

7) Then I add the cup of fresh basil leaves and puree those in a little bit (just so there are no full sized leaves.)

8) Next, add the bread to the pot, and stir the bread all around.

9) Put the lid back on the pot and let simmer over lowest heat another 10 minutes. Then I just used a wooden spoon to break up the bread a little bit into the soup.

10) Season with kosher salt if you need it and serve hot with some grated parmesan cheese on top.