Tomato Soup

I have made tomato soup for Maya Rae for 7 years in a row. The girl lives on it all winter long.

My original recipe had flour and butter in it. This goes against all the modern canning rules so I changed it up a little this year with really good results.
For starters...I don't fuss with blanching the tomatoes. Such a big ol pain! All I do now is wash, lop off the tops and toss them in chunks into the blender. Zooom! Then I dump the pulp into a colander. The pulp that comes through goes in a quart jar and the seeds go in the compost bin. (that's the compost pale you see there on the counter)

I put 1 stick of butter in a sauce pan and saute 1 cup of chopped onion. Because Maya doesn't like texture in her soup I pour the hot butter and onion in the blender to puree the onion.

Back in the pot. Add 7 qts of tomato pulp/ juice. 1/4 c salt, 3/4 c sugar, 1 1/2 teaspoon pepper.

I let it cook for about an hour at a simmer. Then add 2 cans tomato paste. Boil 10 min. Pack in jars. Process in water bath for 30 min.
Add equal parts milk, heat and serve. mmmmm.