28. I live like a hermit in my own head
recipe: creamy chicken tortellini soup. also, i watch too much tv.
Last week was one of those weeks where I stupidly booked something for myself for almost every evening. Three concerts, one birthday dinner, a D&D session, and it rained for almost five days straight. When dreary Monday rolled around this week after a weekend of rain, ya girl was stressin’ and depressin’ due to the lack of alone recharge time and gloomy days.
But the sun eventually came out, as it always does. We don’t live in a Ray Bradbury short story, after all. I celebrated the return of sunshine with outside happy hour and I’m feeling pretty good despite the crushing weight of human responsibilities pressing down on me at every second.
Although I’ve been absolutely slammed with events and work, I have managed to make a soup or two. It is October, after all, I know how the Internet works. But I haven’t really had time to think about what to write here, so I’m just going to give you another random list of dumb shit I’ve thought about and then written down in my Apple Notes app. This week, you get the three television shows that I would make you watch if we fell in love.
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
This is biased because a) I love musicals, b) I love self-loathing, and c) I have designated it as my current work tv binge so I am constantly reminded every day how smart and funny it is. What I especially love is that everyone who watched it has a completely different song for their favorite one. Me? It changes every time I’m reminded these songs exist but also it’s “You Ruined Everything" for pErSoNaL rEaSoNs.
Veronica Mars
At this point in my life, I have converted so many people I know into Veronica Mars fans that I should be collecting royalties from Rob Thomas. One of the things that I’m pretty sure will be etched on my gravestone is “Ok ok hear me out but season one of Veronica Mars is a perfect season of television” because I’ve said it so many times.
Over The Garden Wall
This cartoon miniseries feels like the fall. I watch it every year. I got nothing else to say except that I’m currently working on making a pair of Auntie Whispers earrings.
BONUS: Unsolved Mysteries
Sorry that I find Robert Stack’s voice so comforting but welp, we all have our personal traumas. I’ve talked about Unsolved Mysteries with my friends and we all agree that the best way to watch Unsolved Mysteries is to skip all the boring Lost Loves and Missing Persons segments, never skip an actual crime or anything regarding treasure, and be wary on the UFO ones. Before you ask, I have made a half-hearted attempt to watch the Netflix reboot, but much like my pizza delivery, I need my crimes presented to me in 30 minutes or less. Lately, I’ve been listening to the Unsolved Mysteries podcast during my weekly office commute and although there’s no Robert Stack to guide me, it’s still pretty good.
You should know that although I forced my friend Bill to spend the last six months of his Thursday evenings watching Veronica Mars — aka “romance trash” — the tides have now turned and he is forcing me watch Friday Night Lights, so maybe there’s still time for me to understand how football works.
This recipe is a riff on a recipe sent to me from my pal Jangle. Her real name isn’t actually Jangle but holy shit, what if it was.
Creamy Chicken Tortellini Soup
Jangle dropped this recipe to me after reminding me she doesn’t believe chili is a soup, so thanks girl lol. Since I’m super busy these days, I did it in my Instant Pot so I could have magic soup, so I’m going to write these instructions as though you are also doing that. It’s 2022, get an Instant Pot when they go on sale for Black Friday this year, ok? They are amazing for soups.
Serves 6
Ingredients
- 1 medium yellow onion, diced
- 1/3 cup flour
- 6 cloves of garlic, minced
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1 qt chicken broth
- 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes
- 1 to 1.5 boneless, skinless chicken thighs or breasts
- 1 package cheese tortellini (I bought one from Trader Joe’s, but roughly 4 cups of tortellini will work)
- 2-3 big handfuls of shredded kale or spinach — something green, ok?
- 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
- 1 cup heavy cream (you could use half & half if you must)
- salt, pepper and red pepper flakes
Directions
Use the saute function on your brand new Black Friday Instant Pot to saute your onion in olive oil until translucent, then throw in your garlic. Add in flour and cook that raw taste off for about 1-2 minutes. Add tomato paste, then pour in chicken broth, tomatoes, and add in chicken. Season with salt, pepper, and some red pepper flakes and turn off saute.
Turn on slow cooker function, cover, and cook on low for 5-6 hours.
Remove the lid and use a fork or whatever you want to shred the chicken, then add in tortellini, greens, cheese and cream. Now is also a great time to taste the broth and see if you need more salt and pepper. Put the lid back on and let it cook for about 15 more minutes or until those little tortellinis are done.
That’s it, man. Put more parmesan cheese on top because why not.
Ratings
📺 📺 📺 / 📺 📺 📺 📺 📺
Right out of the pot
This was pretty homey and comforting, but I did find it to be a little one note. The red pepper flakes help, but I would be interested to see what it would taste like with another kind of tortellini or ravioli filling. Like lobster ravioli? Now we’re talking. I think the greens are non-negotiable, though, they add a much-needed bitterness to offset the richness of the cream. I’m going to go three television sets out of five television sets.
📺 📺 📺 📺 / 📺 📺 📺 📺 📺
Leftovers
I thought the tortellini would get super mushy but it actually held up pretty well, though I wouldn’t push it past 3 days in the refrigerator. Bumping it up to four television sets because you can have pasta-based soup for three days! Pretty good.
📺 📺 📺 📺 📺 / 📺 📺 📺 📺 📺
Depression meal
I mean, you dump a lot of stuff into one pot and let it go, and there’s not a lot of chopping involved. Five television sets, which is rare, but hey, there it is.
I missed last week’s Soup Club and tbh, I’ve been feeling like I need to adjust my schedule a little. One soup a week is a lot now that I’m back in the office part-time on top of everything else. I’m going to shoot for every other week, but maybe with this abbreviated schedule, I’ll have time to do summers?
This edition’s headline song is inspired by my Death Cab for Cutie concert adventure with my stupid idiot friends. By adventure, I mean I left before the encore even happened because I had to wake up for a 7:00 am call. God, I used to be cool.