So, anyone who knows me, knows that I haven’t been getting too many days off. I mean, the whole day.  I’ve have many days scheduled “off”, but then found a few things to do at the store, that turned into a few hours. Or stopped in for a few groceries and ended up covering a break at the cash or realized that one department was short a staff and stayed for a while to help out. 

All Good. Really.

I love my job, and I really love being able to help where I can.

But things are settling again at the store and I ended up with a whole day with absolutely no reason whatsoever to go into the store today.

That means I got to have a luxurious day of puttering around my basement, tidying and organizing some craft stuff that has been piling up. And then, I pulled out a wood burning project that has sat unfinished for too long and realized that it was sitting there because I needed a new tip. So I wandered some stores in Windsor to get some errands done that I kept putting off.

However,

What everyone else in my family thought was that a real, full day off meant Mom was cooking dinner.

So when I started for home just before 5:00 and saw the text that Sterling’s lovely girlfriend would be joining us, I thought my original “cheater meal” plan of Slop (ground beef, onions, elbow noodles and cream of mushroom soup) might not cut it.

What to make in under an hour? But still be company worthy (yes, girlfriend is new enough to count as company – once she’s around a bit longer, she will also enjoy the occasional meal of Slop.)….

I knew I had some tortellini packages in my freezer. Typed that into Google for a recipe, and swung by Schinkels’ on my way home for a few other ingredients.

Tortellini Soup

Yes, in 45 minutes.

Running double time meant that I had to cook up the sausage, onions and garlic in wine all at the same time. The  fancy recipe wanted me to do it all in stages. And I had the tortellini’s boiling while I was cooking up the meat. Otherwise, it was a pretty easy throw together with some accommodations.

Didn’t have garlic cloves, but I did have some Borelli Minced Garlic. Easier, in my opinion.

Didn’t have the tomato sauce it asked for, and I forgot to grab some at the store. But I did have a can of diced tomatoes in my pantry. Hhmmm. So I threw half the can into the soup and then used my immersion blender on the rest of it to make a sauce.

(Note: also added just a bit of brown sugar to that to take the sharpness away. )

Had the chicken broth, but still used a half bottle of wine to simmer with it all anyway. I let that simmer for a while while I tidied up the kitchen and set the table.

I don’t make soup often (I love to leave soup and stews up to Greg). Not sure if this is often a thing. But, this recipe called for some cream to be added right at the the end before serving. I thought, hey, that aught to be nice.

Because, well, Cream.

So, all’s well that starts at Schinkels’, once again.

Girlfriend might end up with Slop next time, but I don’t mind using her as an excuse to up my dinner game once in a while.

recipe can be found here – Tortellini Soup