church cookbook

I find most of my recipes online, but every once in a while it's nice to use one that written on a recipe card or from an actual cookbook. Mom was nice and gifted all of us kids with the church cookbook from Eitzen. A couple of the other times I've pulled it out looking for something specific, I was bummed because it didn't have what I was looking for (one time for peanut butter cookies and the other with no-bake cookies.) ... now that I think about it, it's only been when I want to make cookies. I mentioned in my previous post that there was only two nights of planning this week due to travel - Monday was potato pancakes and Sunday was Zesty Tomato Soup - both from the church cookbook. Both awesome.

Zesty Tomato Soup
submitted by A. Doering
2 c. cooked tomatoes
1 med. onion, sliced
2 Tbsp. butter
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. minced garlic
1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
2 c. beef broth
1 c. tomato juice
1/2 c. orange juice
1 bay leaf

In a saucepan, melt butter over low heat and saute the onion with garlic and salt until tender. Add tomatoes and simmer 3o minutes. Pour this mixture into a blender and puree (but be careful - see below). Return to pan. Add remaining ingredients and simmer,covered, for 25 minutes. Discard bay leaf and serve.

The recipe recommends serving hot with parmesan cheese or cold with a sprig of parsley or a thin slice of lemon.

My notes:

• it was very brothy (not sure that's a word...) so I used a little cornstarch and water to thicken it just a bit.


• I diced the onions instead of slice... not that it makes a difference because as I read the recipe further, you puree it, anyway.


• I served with grilled cheese because I like dipping it in the soup.

And it was great, so will be making this again as we move into the fall/winter warm food season. The nice thing is that it's still pretty light because it's not cream-based, but will warm you up on the cool days that are promised to come.

p.s. I looked it up. Brothy is an appropriate adjective version of broth. :)

p.p.s. Does anyone know what happens if you eat the bay leaf? I've always been taught that you take it out and never eat it. In my mind, it seems that it might kill me. I'm sure that's not true, but am just curious.