Weekend Summary

It's been a pretty quiet weekend around here.  

Ron and I ate dinner on Friday night at The Lion and the Rose English pub near our house.  Ron had fish and chips, and I had a grilled cheese with tomato on pretzel bread with chips.  Pretty good.  We've eaten there before.  I tried the shepherd's pie that time, but wasn't impressed.  

We went shopping Saturday and got Mom a wireless amplifier so that she can watch TV without turning up the sound on the TV.  The office had called to let us know that there had been several complaints from her neighbors about the volume on her TV late at night.  I think she falls asleep watching TV and it stays on all night.  She turns it up very loud so that she can hear it.  Poor neighbors.

So we went to set the amplifier up, and it wouldn't work.  Brought it home and it worked fine on our TV.  Ron said that it had to be something about her TV (it was old), so today he went and bought her a new one.  She was delighted with her new flat screen, and the amplifier works great on it.  We put the TV on mute, and she can still hear through the headphones.  They have excellent sound quality, and she can turn them up as loud as she likes, but no one else will hear the TV.  Praying it works, as we don't want to disturb other people or have her asked to leave.  

I made sausage and tortellini soup for dinner tonight.  I thought it was good.  I love homemade soup, and the family liked it, too.  Here is the recipe.

Sausage and Tortellini Soup

1 Sausage link, cut in slices (I used an Eckrich Farm sausage).
1 chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
6 C chicken broth (or beef or vegetable broth)
1/2 C red wine or cooking sherry (I skipped this b/c I didn't have any wine or sherry).
1 can diced tomatoes
4 carrots, chopped
2 T finely chopped fresh rosemary (or to taste)
1 bunch of fresh basil (I only left this in the soup for a short time because it had such a strong flavor).
1 zuccini, chopped
8 oz. of frozen tortellini
Handful of baby spinach (I used regular sized spinach leaves).
Parmesan cheese to grate over the top of the soup.  (Get good, stinky parm--it makes a difference).

Brown the sausage in a large pan for 10 minutes.  
Brown the onion in the grease from the sausage with a little olive oil added for 5 minutes.
Add the stock, wine, tomatoes, carrots, and herbs.  Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer 30 minutes.
Add zuccini and tortellini.  Simmer 10 minutes or until tortellini is fully cooked.
Add spinach leaves 5 minutes before soup is done.
Ladle into bowls and top with grated parmesan cheese.
Serve with yummy bread.

Enjoy!

(Recipe adapted from a recipe found here.