Creamy Tortellini Soup

This weather.  Ug.  As I sit here typing this, there are snow flakes flying outside my window.  I am normally not opposed to snow...except for one thing:

IT'S MARCH 26TH!!!  What is happening?  What ever happened to global warming?  Who do I talk to about this?  Al Gore?  The groundhog?  Al Roker?  I want answers!  I'm having to drag my flower pots in the house every night and it's ruining everything!

Obviously, I have been very upset about this weather.  So to make myself feel better and to warm up, I had to make something hot.  So hot, in fact, that I burned my tongue on the first bite.  I was desperate to warm up I tell you.

This little dish here is super creamy and just a little bit spicy.  You can kick it down a notch by using regular Rotel, but why?  It's freezing outside!

Creamy Tortellini Soup

Ingredients:

6 cups chicken broth
1.25 lbs ground turkey
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp fennel seed
4 cups fresh baby spinach
1 can hot Rotel
1 package Buitoni three cheese tortellini
8 oz reduced fat cream cheese, room temp and cut into pieces
salt and pepper to taste
Parmesan cheese for garnish

Heat olive oil in a large dutch oven over medium heat.

Once it's nice and hot, add your ground turkey.

Cook and crumble over medium heat...

Keep on cooking til it's browned.  Then stir in the fennel and garlic. 

Now add your chicken broth to the ground turkey pot.

Then add your Rotel, and salt and pepper to taste. 

And stir it all together, cover, and bring to a boil.

Now, add your pasta.

Allow to boil for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Pasta will swell like so:

Now it's time to add the spinach.  Do this by piling half of it on top, then stirring it in.  Then pile on the other half, and stir in.

It wilts down quickly.

Now!  Reduce heat to low and stir in the cream cheese pieces...

Cover and cook on low for 5-10 minutes, stirring a couple of times.

 After 10 minutes, remove the lid slowly...

Beautiful!  There you have it.  Creamy, yummy, and most importantly, piping hot.  Serve immediately, and top with shredded Parmesan cheese, if desired. It'll warm you right up. 

Enjoy! 





 

Jalapeno Bacon Mac & Cheese

Warning:  this stuff is extremely delicious.  If you have an aversion to cheesy, bacony, spicy awesomeness, look away now.

This is so good, in fact, that I made it twice last week, and Brent did not complain one bit.  It's a real crowdpleaser. 

The recipe below is for four very large (or six smaller) servings.  It will fit in an 8x8 baking dish.  If you want enough for a 9x13 dish, or 8-10 servings, simply double this recipe, except for the egg - you'd still use just one. 

Note:  Leave out the bacon and and jalapenos, and you'll have the recipe for regular Mac and Cheese.  It is also quite delicious!


Jalapeno Bacon Mac & Cheese

Ingredients:

2 cups dry short-cut pasta  (I used corkscrew)
2 Tbsp all purpose flour
2 Tbsp butter
1 & 1/4 cup milk (any kind, skim is fine)
1 egg
1 tsp dry mustard powder
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 fresh jalapeno
6 slices of bacon, cooked until crisp
8 oz cheese (I used cheddar)
salt and pepper to taste

 
First, prepare the pasta al dente in salted water according to package directions, minus a minute or two.  Test it, and it should be a little too hard to serve as is.  It's going to bake, so do not over boil.  I used corkscrew pasta.  It looks like this before it's cooked:

I think this is a fun shape, but you can feel free to use elbow macaroni, bowtie, spirals, penne, or shells.  It's whatever you prefer.  Or whatever you have in your pantry. 

Once the pasta's done cooking, drain, and just leave it in the colander.

While the pasta's cooking, you can shred your cheese.  I'm using extra sharp cheddar here.

And dice your jalapeno.  I'm leaving all the seeds in, because I'm very brave.  If you're not brave, you can remove the seeds, since that's where the heat is.  Dice it pretty fine.

In a large pot or dutch oven, melt your butter over medium-low heat. 

Once melted, toss in the flour.

Now whisk together, and allow to cook over medium low, whisking often for 5 minutes.  It should get some color so that it looks like this:

Now whisk in the milk.

Keep adding and whisking...

Til you've added it all.  It will look like this:

Now crack your egg into your milk measuring cup, and lightly beat.  Now scoop in about a half cup of your milk mixture into your egg, and stir together.  Once it's fully incorporated, add the egg/milk to the pot.  This tempers the egg, or heats it up slowly, so that it doesn't turn into scrambled eggs when you add it to the milk mixture.

Add your mustard and cayenne, and your salt and pepper.

Keep cooking and whisking over the medium low heat for about 10 minutes.  The sauce will thicken and look like this:

This is the time to taste again and add more salt and pepper if needed.  Remember, the bacon and cheese will add some salt, so don't add too much. 

Now it's cheese time.  Dump in 3/4 of your cheese you grated...

And in goes the jalapeno...

Stir together until combined.  YUM.

Now add about half the bacon..

And finally, the cooked pasta.   You may need to give the pasta a quick rinse in hot water first if it's stuck together in the colander.

Now this is totally delicious if you serve it right now.  But if you want to make it even better, you can dump it into a casserole dish and top with the remaining cheese and bacon, and bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

Here's what it looks like when it's finished baking:

Awesomeness in a dish.  I am telling you.

Enjoy!

Charleston Chicken Salad

I have a secret that makes this fast and easy.  Here it is:  I used canned chicken.  I know.  You're horrified.  Brent was too.  In that moment when he saw me crack open that can, the look on his face said everything he thought he knew about me was wrong.  Then I told him his mom uses canned chicken for her chicken salad sometimes, and that made it all OK.

I'm telling you, you won't notice the difference.  If you have the time to cook and shred the chicken, by all means, do it.  But this is a little short cut I use sometimes.  

Now you may be asking, what makes this chicken salad a Charleston chicken salad?  Well I'll tell you.  Pineapples!  They are all over the place in Charleston.  It's because back in the olden days, the people of Charleston would place pineapples on their front porches as a symbol of welcome.  There's more to the story but that's all I can remember.

Anyway, I love, love, love Charleston.  I am going back there this year, so I am making this chicken salad to celebrate! Pineapples for everyone! 



Charleston Chicken Salad

Ingredients:

2 10 oz cans premium white meat chicken, drained
8 oz can pineapple tidbits
4 oz Neufchatel cheese, room temp (or light cream cheese)
1 lemon
1/4 cup plain almonds
1/2 tsp salt (or to taste)
1/2 tsp black pepper (or to taste)

Preheat oven to 350.  Grab your almonds.

Give them a chop.

Feel free to chop them finer than that.  I was tired so I stopped there.

Now place the chopped almonds into the oven and toast for 4 minutes.  Once toasted, remove from oven and allow to cool. 

In a large mixing bowl, add cheese, 2 Tbsp of pineapples, plus 2 Tbsp pineapple juice.

With a fork, mix this together.  Crush the pineapple some with the fork and work to combine completely.  You can mix this in the food processor if you want it to go faster.  Or you can buy crushed pineapple (that would probably be the easiest, but I just used what I had).  The mixture should become a mayo-like consistency.  

Next, add the zest of a lemon to the cheese mixture.

Now cut the lemon in half and squeeze the juice of half the lemon into the cheese mixture.  Add salt and pepper.  You may want to start with 1/4 tsp of each, then add more at the end if you want to. 

Now stir until totally combined. The consistency should be a little thinner than mayo, but very creamy.

Next dump in the drained chicken.

Fold cheese mixture into the chicken.  Use a fork or your spatula to break up chunks of chicken as you stir.  Then add the rest of the pineapple, drained.  Don't add any more juice.  (Note:  I did not add quite all of the pineapple.  Just add however much you want.  The more pineapple you add, the sweeter it will be)

Then add the toasted almonds.

Now stir to combine, taste, and adjust your seasonings.  I added a lot more pepper at this point, and some more salt as well. 

Serve with crackers, or on a sandwich.  Enjoy!