Tomato Tortellini Soup

I've been wanting to try this particular soup recipe for awhile.  I found it in the Taste of Home magazine, and since the day I tore it out, I've said "Oh, I'll have to make that this week".  Well, last night finally became "this week", and I decided to try it as something different for dinner.  It's very easy to put together, so if you need to make dinner at the last minute, or you're just a little worn out from a long day, this is a good one to turn to.

Start by cooking your cheese tortellini (I used wheat; we love wheat pasta and that also happened to be all they had at the store) 

according to the package directions (or if you are the Super Woman that I dream to be someday, cook your freshly-made cheese tortellini until ready)

and then drain the pasta

While the pasta is cooking, you can start on the rest of the soup.  In a dutch oven or soup pot, mix together low-sodium tomato soup, 2% milk, half and half, vegetable broth, chopped oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, onion powder, garlic powder, dried basil, and kosher salt

and heat over medium-low.  Once the pasta has cooked and drained, add it to the soup mixture, along with some shredded Parmesan cheese.  Once it's heated through, serve!

I garnished with a little fresh black pepper, some fresh basil from my container garden, and some grated (since I was out of shredded) Parmesan.

Here's the recipe:

1 (9oz) pkg. refrigerated cheese tortellini

2 cans low-sodium tomato soup

2 cups vegetable broth

2 cups 2% milk

2 cups half and half

1/2 cup chopped oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes

1 tsp. onion powder

1 tsp. garlic powder

1 tsp. dried basil

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 cup shredded Parmesan, plus more for garnish

1) Cook tortellini according to package directions.  Drain.

2) In soup pot, combine everything but the shredded Parmesan cheese and tortellini.  Heat through.

3) Add cooked tortellini.  Stir in the cheese.  Sprinkle each serving with additional Parmesan cheese.  Garnish with fresh basil leaves, if desired.

My suggestion for you - double the tortellini.  It was good the way it was, but would be even better with more of the pasta.  Also, next time I might try replacing some of the 2% milk with whole milk, or some of the half and half with some cream, to make it even creamier.

And they're off! Derby party snacks.

I recently attended my first Kentucky Derby party, and it was a great experience.  Every detail had been thought of to make this party great: TVs to watch the races, race sheets to read up on the horses, Derby hat contests, race tickets, door prizes, Derby decorations and lots of food and drink!  Everyone also was asked to bring an appetizer or dessert to share and we were asked to bring an appetizer.  It took me awhile to decide on something, but I finally settled on these Tomato Bacon Cups.

Here's the recipe:

8 slices bacon

1 tomato, diced

1 sm. bunch scallions, finely chopped

3 oz. shredded Swiss cheese

1/2 C mayo

1 tsp. dried basil

1 (16 oz.) can refrigerated buttermilk biscuit dough

1) Preheat oven to 375.  Lightly grease a mini muffin pan (two if you have them, it'll go faster).  I hit each cup with a very quick shot of cooking spray.

2) Cook bacon until crispy over medium heat in a skillet; you'll need to crumble it, and it will be easier than if it's chewy.  Add the bacon to a bowl; mix in the tomato, onion, cheese, mayo and basil.

3) Separate each biscuit into it's natural halves; cut each half into quarters.  Roll each quarter into a ball and then use a rolling pin to flatten into a little disc.  Place the disc into one of the muffin tin cups; press into the bottom and up the sides of the cups, making a little mold.  Fill each of the biscuit cups with some of the mixture (for me, it was a couple of teaspoons each).  You could conceivably roll out all the discs, then go back and fill at the end; when I tried that, though, I found the biscuit was loosing it's shape and I had to re-form/re-roll again, anyway.  So I found it easiest to go one by one.  Whatever works for you!

4) Bake for 10-12 minutes in the preheated oven, until cups are golden brown.

The first few I made, I feel like I used too much biscuit dough (you can sort of tell in the picture above).  Originally I had been cutting each biscuit half into thirds; that's when I switched to quarters, and it worked much better.  Unfortunately, I guess my battery was low, because the pictures of those batches didn't end up on my camera.

These went over really well; so well, there weren't any left over to bring home from the party!  But I did snag one to test before taking (what if they were horrible?!) and I thought they were really good.  Just for something different, I might try cheddar cheese in a future attempt, or even some of those flavored mayos to give it a little something different.  Either way, I'd definitely take them to another get together, for sure.

Let me know if you try this, and how it turns out for you!

(If you need a mini muffin tin, check this one out - the one I used for this was a Wilton one)