Tortellini and Shredded Beef in Broth with Vegetables

Note to readers:  This blog is now published on WordPress:  www.moretimeatthetable.com.  I'll publish at both sites for a while, but not for too long!  Please change your links and favorites and follow me to the new site!  Thanks to my smart daughter, Emily Suzanne Morgan, for managing the migration.  Follow Emily @ www.fightthebees.com

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The famous Italian dish, Tortellini en brodo, is a beautiful, well-known holiday pasta and broth soup upon which my simplified, shredded-beef American version is based.  I truly didn't have this dish in mind, I just happened to have a pot roast, a bunch of tortellini, and a desire for something besides the things I usually make with pot roast on a cold snowy day: pot roast and vegetables,  beef-vegetable soup, beef-barley soup, beef burgundy, and so on. If you'd like to make the real Tortellini en brodo, visit a blog that has the directions in English; many are in Italian!  Here's a good home-made blogger's  version  (Stefan's Gourmet Blog) that is totally from scratch, including the meat filling for the tortellini, and looks luscious.  If you'd rather have a little video action and a Mario Batali recipe, here's that link.  The simplest shortcut recipe is here.  In other words, you're not cooking meat for broth, bones for stock, or making homemade pasta and filling in my soup, but you are cooking a pot roast!  And while my ingredients' list isn't short, the method is simple and gives you time for other things.  

Baby Kale and Kluski Noodles with Chicken

Note to Readers:  This blog has moved to WordPress and is now published at moretimeatthetable.com.  Please change your links and favorites and follow me at the new site!  I'll post in both places for a while, but not for long!  Many thanks to my smart daughter, Emily, for managing the migration.  Follow Emily on fightthebees.com.

When you google Chicken and Noodles, there are over 23 million results.  Anyone who cooks and isn't a vegetarian has probably made some variation on the Chicken and Noodles theme, such as this one from a couple of years ago on this very blog:

How quickly can you say Chicken and Noodles?

Mom's Turtle Cheesecake for a Special Son's Birthday

A note to More Time Readers:  I've moved the blog to WordPress and it is now published at moretimeatthetable.com.  Please change your links, favorites, etc.  I'll publish both places for a while, but not for long!  Great thanks to smart, gorgeous daughter Emily Morgan for managing the migration and for being my super-tech.  Follow Emily on fightthebees.com.

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When your children are growing up, if you're a baker (and sometimes even if you're not), you bake a cake for their birthdays.  I wonder if that's still true?  Most of the time my kids' parties were simple affairs---celebratory and fun, to be sure--but sort of cake and ice cream parties for a bunch of their buddies or maybe even just the family and neighbors.

(below:  Sean, a marvelous cook, making his world-renowned pizza--one of my frequent requests.  He's also a fine brewer.  Nice combination, huh?)

Green Chile Beef with Cheddar Mashed Potatoes

Note:  This blog has moved to WordPress. I am now publishing at moretimeatthetable.com and hope to see you there!  Please reset your favorites and links and follow me at the new beautiful location.  Migration accomplished by my smart youngest, Emily Morgan.  (I'll publish here as well for the next little while, but not for long!)  

Over the holidays, and since, we've been making big pots of soup when we weren't finishing off the leftovers.  Colds, strep throat, and the need for lighter fare after all the heavy meals were the instigators, but the weather contributed…  Today, the sun came out to melt the snow--

and it was time for something else:  real cooking in the oven maybe?  Two big pot roasts called my name at the store the other day, and one of them simply jumped into the Dutch oven cut up with a big bunch of cooked green chiles and onions.  Sounded incredible--a green chile braise--but I also decided to whip up a pot of cheddar mashed potatoes to keep it company.  A side of barely tender green beans, stirred up with just the teensiest bit of butter rounded out the meal.

Chicken-Wild Rice Soup with Butternut Squash and Pecans

WE'VE MOVED! More Time at the Table is now published on wordpress.com!  This blog has been hosted on blogger for the past four-plus years and will be published at both urls for a month or so…or until all the kinks are worked out of the transition process.  Do change your bookmarks or links, please, and follow me here on Word Press:  http://www.moretimeatthetable.com/   Great thanks to my gorgeous daughter Emily who managed the migration.  So cool to have smart kids!

In January it's so nice
While slippin' on the slidin' ice
To sip hot chicken soup with rice
Sippin' once, sippin' twice
Sippin' chicken soup with rice...

--Maurice Sendak, lyrics; music by Carole King:   REALLY ROSIE (click to listen to the music)  Original text from Sendak's book CHICKEN SOUP WITH RICE one book in the Nutshell Library:

As a student in library school, I once was in charge of a weekend seminar about famed children's author, Maurice Sendak.  I had to plan the event from soup to nuts, including speeches, lunches, lodging, etc.  I also had to invite the man himself.  I was flabbergasted when he accepted.  I was near collapse when his assistant called a few days ahead, and citing illness, informed me the author would need to miss this particular conference.  Hundreds of people from miles around were nearly on their way.  Crushing…  But, still--the weekend went on as planned….though we certainly missed the main attraction.  No great matter in the long run, though, I never lost my deep and sincere admiration for the man, nor my love for his sweet lyrics about one of my favorite soups ever.  All of my children heard the Sendak books and we kept the REALLY ROSIE book around until…well, actually I still have it.

Ina Fridays -- Salads, Soups, and Sides -- Winter Minestrone with Garlic Bruschetta

WE'VE MOVED! More Time at the Table is now published on wordpress.com!  This blog has been hosted on blogger for the past four-plus years and will be published at both urls for a month or so…or until all the kinks are worked out of the transition process.  Do change your bookmarks or links, please, and follow me here on Word Press:  http://www.moretimeatthetable.com/   Great thanks to my gorgeous daughter Emily who managed the migration.  So cool to have smart kids!

A fast, hearty, healthy, rich, and inexpensive main course is what this soup is all about. A little pancetta to set the stage for the quickly sautéed vegetables bolstered by a heart-happy hit of garlic.  A big blustery can of Italian tomatoes added to chicken stock to create instant broth.  Pasta and beans to fill your tummy.  A few fresh leaves of spinach and a splash each of white wine and pesto to top it all off and make it so.