The Tomato Soup Dilemma.....

Well.... There are always those moments when you are so sure you have it all figured out. Then something happens that throws a big ol wrench in your plans. That happened this last Friday when Bakerista, Burgermeister and I had planned our meal. Waffle Iron grilled cheese (grilled ham for Burgermeister) and tomato soup. It had been a busy week, so we were going to be lazy and buy the tomato soup. Looking back, how dare I? But as I said, I was feeling lazy. Anyhow, somehow the soup was forgotten in the grocery shopping and all the cars were in use. It was lunch time. What do we do? We make it of course. Oh wait. There are no tomatoes. Canned or fresh. None to be found. I was sure that there was no way to make tomato soup without tomatoes. But, I was wrong. I put on my creative cooking cap, (hair in a messy bun) and figured it out. There may have been no tomatoes. But there were cans of plain tomato sauce. There was onion, garlic, cream and chicken stock. Miracles do happen. So I chopped half an onion, cooked it in olive oils with two cloves of garlic. Then I dumped three cans of plain tomato sauce in the pot. Then I added chicken stock. Here is the trouble. I don't know how much. Just until it looked right. Then I brought it all to a boil. Salt and pepper where added as well as 1/3 cup of one part heavy whipping cream one part half n half. I poured that in and let it simmer for about 30 minutes. Then I fried five strips of bacon, chopped them up and tossed them in there with about half the grease. Normally I would have pureed it in the blender, but Bakerista loves onions so much, I didn't dare rob her of the chunky onion goodness. I was very nervous about how this soup would turn out. I tasted it. "Little jig of happiness" SOOOOOO GOOD!!! Consider me very happy. My students liked it, Fusty liked it. Moms liked it. Overall a potential wrench induced disaster turned into a success. I was reminded of something that my favorite author G.K Chesterton said. "An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered." That statement has shaped the way I look at the many "wrenches" that have been thrown into my plans over the years. That is something I daily try to instill in Bakerista and Burgermeister. So instead of a life full of frustration and discontentment, they will have one full of laughter and gratitude. I am currently taking a break from studying Shakespeare's Henry V play to write this blog post. Burgermeister is answering review questions for Logic and Bakerista is answering questions about the proper composition of English sonnets. Just a usual morning for us. I am grateful for the routine, yet when the wrenches get thrown by a kind and winsome Creator, I hope my response is to burst out in laughing gratitude rather than irritation. This is not really a recipe post. It 's more of a story post! Next post I am going to share the story of the infamous "Valentine's Day Party". And my Chesterton quote was certainly put to the test that day. That post will have many recipes attached to it. Trust me. So many.