Tomato soup

Because tomorrow will my 25th birthday, my grandpa and parents are coming over for dinner tonight. Grandpa has a hearing aid and doesn't like birthday parties because he has trouble hearing conversations when there are lots of people talking at the same time. My parents will pick grandpa up and I will take care of dinner. I'm going to fix tomato soup, pork tenderloins, cauliflower, fried potatoes and a salad. And cobbler for dessert.To let you all share in my night-before-birthday dinner, here's the recipe for

Dutchnic's Birthday Tomato Soup (serves at least 5, I hope)

You will need:
1 kg tomatoes (2 lbs), chopped
1 leek, finely sliced
1 onion or 2 shallots, diced
1 garlic clove, sliced
2 small carrots, sliced
500 gr ground beef (1 lb)
1 bay leaf
fresh basil, chopped
pepper, salt
beef broth
a little olive oil

Start by browning the onion and garlic in the olive oil. When it's all soft and smells good, add the carrots and stir until soft. Add the tomatoes and the bay leaf. Simmer for about 30-45 minutes, until it's all cooked through and the carrots can be mashed.Using a Foley (yes Justplanedwight, I have one too and know how to use it!) or other pureeing device, make the carrot-onion-tomato into a smooth mushy liquid, without tomato skins. Make sure you remove the bay leaf before you use the Foley, because it doesn't like Foleys.Add the leek and return the bay leaf and simmer for another ten minutes. If the mixture doesn't look tomatoey enough, you can add some tomato puree or a can of tomatoes (I do it too, although I do consider that cheating ). Add the beef broth and salt and pepper if necessary.Well, this is a basic soup, but you're probably wondering, what about the ground beef? Make little meat balls (the size of a cherry) after you've spiced the beef up with a little salt and pepper, and other seasonings that you want to add. Drop them into a little pot of boiling water, until they are cooked. The water will get a little nasty, but that's ok. You're boiling the meat balls in this water so the soup won't look like this. When cooked, fish out the balls and drop them in the soup.Finish by adding the basil, serve, and enjoy!