Tomato Basil Soup

Although I made this soup on the stove top, we finished it off by putting it in the crock pot (the soup could easily be made completely in the crock pot as well) for about an hour to keep it warm, and to let the flavors blend together nicely while we ran some errands.  And let me tell you, the flavors of this soup were divine. And for one who grew up hating tomatoes and tomato soup (I still won't eat tomatoes, except in sauces/salsa), it says a lot that I think this soup tasted amazing. And whether you make this on the stove or in your crock pot, I think you'll love this too.

*This only made enough soup for about 3 servings, so if you are feeding more people you will probably want to double the recipe.

1 1/2 TBS minced garlic,
1 TBS olive oil
3 large tomatoes

2 cups chicken broth
1/2 TBS salt

1/2 TBS sugar
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 cup heavy cream
3 TBS basil

1. Juice 2 of your tomatoes and chop the other into small pieces, set aside. **
2. Saute your garlic in a large sauce pan with the oil, for one minute, stirring occasionally.
3. Add your tomato juice and chopped tomatoes to the pan.
4. Crush your tomatoes in the juice with the bottom of a cup.
5. Add the chicken broth, salt, sugar and pepper.
6. Simmer for 5 minutes, over medium heat
7. Remove some of the large chunks of tomato and blend for about 20 seconds in a blender or magic bullet.
8. Return tomatoes to the soup.
9. Add cream and basil to the soup and stir.
10. Cook for another two minutes. (This is when we put it in the crock pot and left it for an hour on low, but you could put it in the crock pot at step 3)
11. Enjoy with a delicious side of bread-sticks, or grilled cheese.

**If you don't have a handy dandy juicer like we do, I recommend chopping all 3 of your tomatoes into small pieces and pureeing 2 of them completely in a blender, unless you like a lot of chunks.

What's a food that you hated as a child, but have since grown to like?