Pen to paper; fingers to keyboard. I have started this sentence over about 10 times. The thoughts are there, the words just are not coming to me. You may have noticed that we have been away from Chez Us for a couple weeks. No, we have not stopped eating. Life just kind of grabbed a hold of us (me) and I needed some time to regroup. I think we (I) are back.
During my break from life I needed some comfort food. I was sitting, drinking coffee and staring at my computer last week, when a childhood memory that I had not thought about floated into my mind….. Campbell’s Cream of Tomato Soup with grilled Velvetta cheese sandwiches. God, I use to love the two; creamy soup and gooey fake cheese sandwiches. I loved how the butter would brown the edges of the bread (white bread, too) and the gooey Velvetta would just ooze everywhere. Now, the soup. Nothing is better than creamy tomato soup but add a pat of butter to it and you have heaven. My grandmother on my father’s side would add a big pat of butter to the soup. I loved watching it bob up and down in the bowl, the edges melting into the creamy soup, leaving little pools of butter. I would always slurp up the buttery parts first.
Those memories are what I needed to stir up this fantastic soup recipe. I used canned tomatoes, only because the fresh ones are not quite there yet. As well I threw in a red pepper to give it some added depth. I skipped the cream, too, the thing with pureed soups, you really don’t need it. And I replaced the butter pat with fresh basil. I did serve it with grilled cheese but this time it was on country bread with a spread of French Tapenade and Gruyere cheese. Same buttery edges though! It was delicious. It was comfortable.
Did you ever enjoy a Velvetta Cheese Sandwich as a child? Or as an adult?
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