Tomato soup!

I love soup. I love having leftovers and I love being able to eat out of a coffee mug. Every winter I want to make big batches of soup on the weekends and just have leftovers for the rest of the week. This winter, I might actually do it. There have been three soups in the past week, though only two resulted in leftovers.
The first was minestrone, discussed here. A recipe wasn't really involved.
The second was oyster stew on Thursday night. Surprisingly easy and really good. I am scared of oysters, but these all came in a jar without shells and all we had to do was dump them in a pot. The rest of the ingredients were shallots, butter, grated celery, milk&cream, and some spices. It wasn't really hard to predict that it would turn out well with that combination of ingredients.
Last night's soup followed the same principle but was even easier than the oyster stew, probably because it didn't require dealing with oysters. Apparently this soup is from a popular chain in Montana, and they have been nice enough to publicize the recipe. In any case it is extremely simple; the version we used came from this site - we doubled it and used more onion and good quality (in a box, not a can) veggie broth.

1 - 28 ounce can diced tomatoes, including juice
1 cup chicken broth
2 tbs butter
2 tbs sugar
1 tbs chopped onion (I use more than that; sometimes I use dried/minced instead)
Pinch baking soda
2 cups cream or half-and-half (I prefer the latter, having tried it both ways)
Salt and pepper to taste

Serves 4-6; easily doubled!

Mix all ingredients EXCEPT cream, salt and pepper in a large soup pot.

Cover and simmer for 1 hour, checking occasionally.

Heat cream in double boiler or in microwave until it is almost ready to boil. Stir into tomato mixture (NOT vice-versa). Serve, and season individual bowls to taste with salt and pepper.

Note - if tomato mixture seems to be getting too dry, a little tomato juice or more chicken broth can be added.
from http://www.twhgrafx.com/recipes/archives/000681.html

It was mutually decided that if when we make it again, we will use less sugar, and probably cut the half&half with milk - it was really rich. Other things to think about were the inclusion of basil, hot sauce, or maybe cheese (feta? gorgonzola? cheddar?).
We had tuna melts with it last night, and plain ol' grilled cheese with the leftovers for dinner today. Yay, comfort food.