It’s the only warning shot that my husband gets before it all breaks loose.

It seems the stereotype is that grown men make the worst patients. I’m a terrible patient. I sniffle, I whine, I cough, I whine, and I build a miniature version of Mt. Rushmore out of balled-up Kleenexes. And then I whine some more. I think the only thing that could make me a worse patient is if I had one of those little bells to ring when I needed something. Or, you know, just wanted to whine to an audience.

Lucky for him, there is one thing that can shut me up: A steamy mug of tomato soup with a Cherry NyQuil chaser. It might be canned, condensed soup but I’ve always found Campbell’s Tomato Soup to have a certain healing effect. It’s completely smooth so you can drink it from a mug – who needs to be bothered with utensils when they’re running a fever of 101?

I was unfortunate enough to experience the double-whammy that was the flu followed by an equally nasty cold. And equally unfortunate to not be able to find a single drop of soup in the house when my appetite returned. How sick was I? I was too sick to cook dinner the night before and I guarantee that I’ll be too sick to make dinner tonight but I wasn’t so sick that I couldn’t let the NyQuil fog clear to make myself homemade soup for lunch

I chose Martha Stewart’s recipe for its simplicity and cooking time – lengthy and complicated is fine, but not when you have a fever. It really hit the spot! Now if I could only get rid of this icky cough…

Classic Tomato Soup
2 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 medium onion, chopped
Coarse salt and ground pepper
2 Tbsp cup all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp tomato paste
1 sprig fresh thyme
14 1/2 oz reduced-sodium chicken broth
28 oz crushed San Marzano tomatoes
2 Tbsp fresh basil, chopped

In a 5-quart saucepan or Dutch oven, melt butter over medium heat; add oil and onion, and season with salt and pepper. Cook until onion is translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir in flour and tomato paste; cook 1 minute.

To saucepan, add thyme, broth, and tomatoes, breaking up tomatoes with your fingers. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer, 30 minutes. Remove thyme sprig.

Using an immersion blender, puree the soup in the pot or transfer the soup to a conventional blender and puree until mostly smooth; return to pot. Season with salt and pepper and stir in fresh basil. Serve immediately. Crushed Club Crackers and grilled cheese sandwich optional.

Yields: 3 servings
Adapted from: Martha Stewart Living

Originally uploaded by Confections of a Foodie Bride.

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