Linda, you mentioned you'd like the recipe for tomato/basil/beef soup. All my recipes are next door as I no longer can cook. However, homemade tomato soup is in many basic cookbooks. I added dried basil in wintertime, but now would add fresh as I do have pots of it. Puree in blender when ready...before adding beef. And, I made the soup after making pot roast, having saved some leftover beef, just pulling it apart with my fingers and heating it at the end in the soup. A dollop of heavy cream or creme fraiche in the soup bowls at the end would be "party mode". Creme fraiche: to 8 ounces very heavy cream add 2 Tablespoons buttermilk, stir and set out in about a 70 degree room until it thickens. Swirl the jar after about 12 hours. If ready, it will be quite thick. Refrigerate when thick, is good until it smells 'off' or turns disgusting. Yuck. Great on fresh fruit pies... or chocolate... I'm dying here thinking about it.