Homemade Cream of Tomato Soup

Luckily, I went grocery shopping before all the snow and sleet and rain and sleet and snow and wind, so I could stay inside and only care about the precipitation when it started coming through a chink in the badly-named storm window. The Chief of Physically Difficult Maintenance took care of that after he took care of the snow and ice on the sidewalk, the driveway, and the neighbors' sidewalk, so I felt that an extra nice lunch was called for. One of us really deserved a nice treat, and both of us would enjoy it.

It seemed like a good day for grilled cheese sandwiches, but they always seem kind of lacking if there's no tomato soup. And even though we were rich in groceries, we did not have one of those red and white cans. So, after a brief consultation with the internet about curdling (the answer is baking soda), I made my first batch of:

Homemade Cream of Tomato Soup
1 onion, chopped
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp flour
half a cup of cream or milk
1 cup chicken broth
1/8 tsp baking soda
1 can diced tomatoes (14 oz)
salt, pepper, and sugar to taste

Melt butter in a saucepan. Cook the onions in the butter gently until they are softened and translucent (maybe 15 minutes). Stir in the flour until it's completely combined with the butter. Gradually stir in the cream or milk and the broth. Mix in the baking soda and heat through. Add the tomatoes with their juice and puree with a stick blender. Heat through and add salt, sugar, and pepper to taste.

This isn't exactly how I made it, but with all my adding a bit more here and a bit more there, trying to get it creamy enough and tomatoey enough and just the right thickness, I ended up with twice as much soup as I was trying to make. So I'm fairly sure this recipe gives good proportions and amounts to make a nice soup for two, but I can't give an ironclad guarantee. I can only say that this is the way I'll make it next time. And I see no need to ever buy a red and white can again. This is tasty.