Tomato Soup

Right, lol, I know what everyone's thinking tomato soup, that's easy, well I'm 37 and the only soup I'd ever made was from a tin, to my shame I'd never even attempted it, then the other day when faced with another pile of tomatoes from my greenhouse knowing full well I had about a kilo at home, I thought what the hell, so I gathered all my tomatoes, some fresh herbs and I went home and just did it, everything I used was mainly from my allotment and do you know what it was lovely.
I put some extra virgin olive oil in my pan, and then I added 2 small chopped onions (red baron that I grew lol), with 2 bay leaves, 2 cloves, a chopped clove of garlic, a stick of chopped celery, and of course a chopped chilli lol.
over a very low heat, I sweated this down for about 10 minutes and then added my peeled and chopped tomatoes, (The easiest way I have found to peel tomatoes is to just immerse them in hot water for about 2 minutes then the skin just peels straight off.) anyway I let this all sweat down for about 15 minutes, then I added about a pint of vegetable stock, I just let this cook on a low heat for about 35 minutes, then I just removed the bay leaves and I have to admit I did scoop out the 2 cloves, I don't really know why, I just didn't think that they would blend well lol, anyway I used my handblender to blend the soup and added a handfull of chopped basil (again from my allotment lol) a little swirl of fresh cream and that was that. It was a really nice soup bursting with flavour, in fact the next night I made leek and potato soup which was even nicer lol even if I do say so myself, I liked it more I think because the potato gave the soup a much fuller and creamier texture it was beautiful. If anyone wants the recipe just ask.
Oh I'll tell you what I made the other day that was disgusting lol, I made a tarragon sauce and I have to admit although I grew it, I didn't know what it tasted like but someone told me tarragon sauce was nice with chicken and thank God it was only leftovers lol but I had some chicken left so thought I know I'll make this sauce, Well Yuck! tarragon tasted of aniseed, so although my sauce was good and not lumpy lol I couldn't eat it,
That's the other thing I love about having an allotment, I am finding that I cook more from scratch so instead of buying a packet mix for my sauce I have learnt how to make a roux, and when I made bolognese (excuse my spelling) the other day I used all fresh tomatoes and herbs, I even added chilli to fruit cake and chocolate cake lol and although that may not sound nice it really was and it added a depth to the fruit cake which everyone said was beautiful, but I didn't add loads so don't go chucking loads in and then blaming me lol.