Roasted tomato soup

As I've gotten older (yikes! I promise people still think I'm 18!) I've realized that fall might be my favorite time of year. I love the way it starts to get cold, giving me an excuse to pull out my cardigans and tights and frolic in the leaves. Or, since I live in Florida, I love the way I decide it is the end of September and I have waited long enough for soup season.

This is a Pinterest recipe I've been wanting to try for a while. If you've been reading this blog for a while or have talked to me ever, you may know that I love tomatoes. And I love tomato soup. I was probably the only girl at camp who got excited when lunch on a 100-degree day was tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. It is one of my favorite things of all time, but somehow my tomato soup-making had never progressed past opening a can. Andrew's been sick the past couple of days--which is sad, and I want him to get better, but it did mean I got to make soup. By the time I made it, he was curled up under three blankets again, fast asleep... so I ate most of it myself. You snooze, you lose?

 The perfect lonely-girl dinner?

This recipe is truly, extraordinarily good. The flavors are perfectly balanced, thanks in part to oven-roasting some of the tomatoes before you toss them in. I used my immersion blender to break up the tomatoes and make it a creamier, thicker soup, but I left some of the roasted tomatoes intact. I ate it with a grilled cheese sandwich made in my jaffel iron, which is the only reason why there's any soup left over.

Roasted tomato soup
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Put around 2 cups small tomatoes on a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle some salt and pepper on top. Roast them for about 15 minutes, until the skins start to break open.

Mince 2 garlic cloves and dice a small onion. Sautee them in some olive oil in a saucepan until they get translucent. Add in the roasted tomatoes, 3 cups chicken broth, 28 oz diced tomatoes, 1 teaspoon garlic powder, 1/2 teaspoon black pepper and 1 tablespoon fresh basil, chopped. Bring the soup to a boil, then let it simmer partially covered for 20 minutes.

Blend the soup with an immersion blender and enjoy!