Before I get into anything at all, I do realize that an apology is in order.

I’m sorry.

I’m so very sorry that I just flat-out dropped off the face of the earth, like Batman in Batman Begins when that hottie patottie, Christian Bale, leaves Gotham in search of his inner Batman.

But he did eventually return to Gotham, ravaged and wretched with havoc, as I have returned to my blog, worn and weary not unlike that fair yet dark city. There was no avengement of paternal deaths or learning how to bare-hand crime fight 50 men at a time, but I did have knee surgery.

See.

And here. . .more proof.

Which is actually not the picture I would have chosen to show you. I would have much rather shown you the picture of me giving my photographer husband the middle finger for capturing me at such a weak moment.

And so now you must pity me. Unlike my mother who is pictured to my left, and appears to be having the merriest of times.

To the wickedly astute, who follow me on Instagram, and are saying, but wait. . .”you just had surgery two weeks ago. . . . . what have you been doing the other 3 1/2 months in which no text has graced your blog?” I say, “Uck. My *ss is just plain lazy, tired, overwhelmed, forgetful. ummm. . . .tired? I’m not really sure.”

It is time you have come to know this about me.

It’s like, I’m a lazy manic person. GO, go, go, go, go, and then I don’t. I just don’t. I don’t check my emails. I don’t answer the phone. I don’t open mail or do anything at all that people want me to do. It’s a personality flaw. Not a real disease. Because I just say, you know what. . . .meh. . . .I’m not gonna do it. And I just jump off the boat of life, usually followed by my children screaming “mommy!”

And then we all hug, and I play with them and love on them, and be with them and nobody else. Except my husband. And my mother. And my sister if she will ever bring her *ss to Houston. And YOU. If you’d ever bring your *ss to my house. But that’s it. It’s like basically, I wanna play, you just have to come to me.

But now, sitting here in this house. . . .all alone. . .. . .I  feel a fever of my usual lazy manic ways bubbling within.  I’ve got things to do, people to see and recipes to cook! Which is really rather unfortunate, because as I’ve outlined above, I’m currently only on one leg. And I’m a bit lazy, so I won’t be breaking my back trying to get my rump off the couch for the next two weeks . . . . .at least.

Yet. . . .

as luck would have it. . .starvation and a longing for spring weather and fresh vegetables can cajole even the laziest of individuals up and out of their drunken Hydrocodene stupor to make themselves something utterly and divinely pleasing to eat.

Unfortunately, I’m a little out of practice and only had my Ipad handy, so the pictures are grainy, and they don’t really sing the praises that I promise this soup/stew is worthy of.

I like to call this my One Legged Stew.

Because I had to stand on one leg while I made it.

Which was the hardest part about this recipe.

So, if you have two legs functioning, you should be good to go.

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Creamy Tomato and Zucchini Tortellini Soup

Hmmm. How do I say this while sounding incredibly grateful that my ever-loving husband has cooked every meal for the past 2 weeks? I have appreciated every morsel that has passed my lips. Every sloppy joe, every fish-stick, and every frozen thing that I have never EVER seen before in my humble little kitchen. I have appreciated the love and attention he has shown me and my beloved offspring. But. . . .I haven’t seen . . .a lot of vegetables around this place. Not cooked ones anyway. And I really do like vegetables. So. . .I really do miss them. Which is why, when he stepped away to work on friday , i ran/hopped over to the stove pulled out all the fresh vegetables that we had in the fridge and threw them in a pot. And this is the result. A stunningly easy and lovely soup, that reminds me of La Madeline’s Creamy Tomato, if it had tons of your favorite chunky bite size vegetables and pillows of velvety tortellini. Yeah. That is exactly what this reminds me of.

Ingredients:

2 tb olive oil

1 medium yellow onion, diced

1 medium red onion, diced

2 carrots, cut into small pieces

5 zucchini, cut into bite size pieces

4 garlic cloves, diced

1 28 oz. crushed tomatoes

1 bouillon cube

1 tb oregano

56 oz water

1/4 cup heavy cream

Salt to taste (I added 1 1/2 tsp)

20 oz bag of fresh tortellini (three cheese)

 

Directions (If you can even call it that):

1. In a large pot, heat oil to medium high heat.  Add onion and carrots. Cook 3 minutes until onions are translucent. Add carrots and zucchini and cook about 7 minutes longer. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute.

2. Add crushed tomatoes, bouillon cube, oregano, and water. Cook until vegetables are tender about 20 minutes. Season with salt, add cream and stir. Bring to boil, toss in the tortellini, remove from heat, cover and let sit until dinner (at least 20 minutes longer).  If you want to eat right away, cook the tortellini in the soup for 6-7 minutes until al dente. If not eating right away, I just throw the pasta into the hot soup, remove from heat, cover and let it cook that way so that the pasta doesn’t over cook and start to fall apart. Either way works great.