Tomato Bisque -- pg. 135

Mrs. B.B. Mallory of Irving, Texas won a blue ribbon in the fair for this soup...Wow...I thought there'd be more competition in the Dallas metro area.  I mean, aren't Southerners known for their fiercely competitive cooking?  Well, that being said, it was a good soup.  My husband said it's the best tomato soup he's ever had.  I disagree.  I thought it was good, and for the effort put into it, possibly great.  Yeah, I'd say for the easiness of the soup, it was probably the best tomato soup yet.  Most of the recipes I really love for tomato soup are a lot more involved.  But, I digress... I can't put my finger on what didn't make this recipe perfect, but something was off.  I like basil, onion and pepper, so that leaves either the bay leaf (unlikely) or that one of the cans of diced tomatoes I used was stamped "Good through August 2003".  Hmmm, does eight years after the expiration make it not as good?  They smelled fine.  The other can was Italian-seasoned diced tomatoes.  But, the seasoning was basil, onion and something else...Let me go dig it out of the trash...BRB...ahhh no onion, but garlic and oregano.  I like both these spices, but maybe that threw it off just a little.  While I was upstairs checking the can in the trash, I tasted the soup again.  I think it's better than I thought.  But, since I will make this again, I will buy new cans of diced tomatoes, with no added seasonings, and let you know if that was it.  The recipe called for four cups of milk, and I used 1%, which made it plenty creamy.  Four spoons...I'm on a roll!