Tomato bisque...soooo delicious

Tomato Bisque

½ c. butter
1 large onion
2 large carrots
3 stalks of celery
1 t. garlic salt
2 t. salt
6 T. flour
8 cups of stewed tomatoes
(2 28 ounce cans)
2 c. chicken broth
(or water)
1 bunch of thyme
1 bunch of basil
2 c. cream
In a large pan sauté butter, chopped onions, carrots, and celery until onions become translucent, about 8 minutes. Add garlic salt, salt and flour, mix well and continue to stir over heat for about 3more minutes. Slowly add chicken broth, or water if you don’t have broth on hand. Add tomatoes, basil leaves, and the whole bunch of thyme, stir the bottom of the pan well and cook for about 30 more minutes, stirring every 5 minutes or so. Keep the temperature on medium, make sure the bottom doesn’t burn. Whisk in 2 cups of cream, and mix thoroughly, cook another 5 minutes on low heat. Remove any stems from the thyme. With a hand mixer, or in smaller batches in a food processor, mix until ingredients are fully blended.
Serve right away hot, or can keep in the refrigerator for up to a 1 week. You can also freeze in zip lock bags. Garnish with basil and parmesan toast (toast slices of a baguette, butter each slice, top with Parmesan cheese and garlic salt, toast another minute under the broiler.)

Because we have an abundance of tomatoes in our garden I decided to use fresh tomatoes instead of canned. It is a surprisingly easy task, so if you have tomatoes of your own, try stewing up a pot! With a bowl full of washed tomatoes, without the stem, I scored the bottom of each with a knife and placed them in a pot of boiling water. After just a few minutes you'll notice the skins starting to peal away from the meat of the tomato, which is exactly what you want! After about 5 minutes you should be able to take them out, with a slotted spoon and place them on a plate or cookie sheet. After they have cooled enough for you to touch them, you can start to peel off the skins, and in some cases you will need to cut off the top were there once was a stem. Place the skinned tomatoes in a bowl and there you have your stewed tomatoes!