Good for your soul

Last week, if felt like spring was here, but today we have SNOW!!! There is no better day to have soup and bread to warm you up.

On a day like today when you were not expecting it to be a soup day – its nice to have a easy, yummy soup to throw together to warm you up.

Spinach Tortellini Soup

1 tablespoon butter

2 garlic cloves, minced

3 1/2 cups chicken, beef or vegetable broth

8 ounce packages fresh or frozen cheese filled tortellini

14 1/2 one can diced tomatoes, undrained

10 ounce package frozen spinach, thawed and undrained

Salt and pepper to taste

Freshly grated parmesan cheese

In a large saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Add garlic and cook, stirring for 2 – 3 minutes or until it is lightly browned. Add broth and tortellini and bring to a boil. Add tomatoes and spinach. Simmer for 5 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste and top each serving with fresh parmesan cheese. Enjoy! This recipe is from my high school principal Bert Blake and his wife.

If you are feeling up to trying a yummy, easy, baked from scratch bread to go with it, I suggest this yummy garlic bread!

1 tablespoon active dry yeast.

1 1/2 cups warm water

1 tablespoon sugar

2 tablespoon olive oil

1 teaspoon table salt

4 cups flour

2 tablespoons poppy seeds

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 cup olive oil

2 cloves garlic

2 tablespoon oregano

2 tablespoon basil

• Dissolve yeast into 1 1/2 cups warm water. Add 1 T sugar, 2 T olive oil, and 1 t salt to the liquid and mix. Start mixing four cups of bread flour into it. After everything is combined, knead the dough for three minutes and then place the dough into a lightly oiled bowl and cover it for about a half hour. Unwrapped it and divide into 4 equal parts. Roll each part into a rectangle and roll like a jelly roll • Roll each loaf into a mixture of poppy seeds and kosher salt. (2T poppy seeds to 1 t salt. Use more if needed)

• Make the olive oil marinade blessing (blend garlic, 1 c olive oil, 2 T each of oregano and basil (leftovers work great on chicken and veg).
•Brush each loaf with oil blessing and let sit for a half hour.

• Bake 450 for 10 minutes and then drop the oven to 400 and bake for another 10. Tap the bottom of the bread and if it sounds hollow, it is done.

Enjoy!