Chicken Tortellini Soup

I realize that today the little "rat" (groundhog) was coaxed out of his hole and he didn't see his shadow - but with this monstrous winter storm that is hitting everyone, I find it very hard to believe that we are in for an early spring.

Shoveling is a favorite pasttime these days. And the nagging snow that just doesn't stop really gets to you after a while.

Right now we have ice pellets hitting the windows. I would prefer to shovel two feet of snow instead of having an ice storm. I really do not like power outages.

Tummy warming meals have been a favorite and I made a soup the other day that was really good!

And I can honestly say that I am turning into my mother (and grandmother) for sure.

Unfortunately - my pics did not turn out but my soup sure did.

Grabbing a large stock pot, I placed my cleaned chicken with onion quarters, whole carrots, whole celery stalks with leaves, Kosher salt, fresh cracked black pepper, parsley and a bit of chicken bouillon.

While that was cooking and I was skimming off the "yuck", I started my homemade tortellini. Okay - they were a bit big. But that was more to enjoy.

I made my basic pasta dough and filled with homemade ricotta cheese.

When the soup broth was ready, I removed the chicken from the pot and placed it in on a large plate and strained the broth into another soup pot. To that I added carrot chunks, diced celery, and potato chunks. Adjust seasonings.

I cooked my tortellini separately to save time - added to my soup pot with frozen peas. While the tortellini were cooking, I pulled my chicken apart and tossed the skin and bones, dicing the chicken and adding to the broth.

Homemade bread for soppin' and we had a great soup.