A Meeting of the Passions

You know when two things you really love come together in one heavenly moment? I had one of those moments this morning. The sheer brilliance of Handel's Messiah and a Sonic banana milkshake. At the same time. There are no words. I almost had an out-of-body experience right there in my car.

It helped make up for the unfortunately eventful morning I had. About which I will say nothing else.

I made the yummiest soup the other night. Not healthy, but yummy. And easy. It's the kind of dish that impresses people because they think you worked hard on it when you really didn't. On the next really cold day, try this:

Tomato-Tortellini Soup

2 14-oz. cans reduced-sodium chicken broth, or if you're veggie like me, vegetable broth

1 9-oz. package refrigerated tortellini (again, since I'm veggie, I used the cheese kind. You might prefer the chicken kind.)

1/2 an 8-oz. tub cream cheese spread with chive and onion

1 10 3/4- or 11-oz. condensed tomato or tomato bisque soup (you have a choice here, but use the bisque! It increases this recipe's yumminess like you wouldn't believe)

Snipped fresh chives (optional) (I didn't have these on hand, so I didn't use them. But they add color to the soup and would get you points on plating, if you were on Iron Chef America.)

In a medium saucepan, bring broth to boiling. Add tortellini, reduce heat. Simmer, uncovered, for five minutes. In a bowl whisk 1/3 cup of the hot broth into the cream cheese spread until smooth. Return all to saucepan along with tomato soup; heat through. Sprinkle with chives before serving. Makes 4 servings.

Even more fast food fun!

Today my mom, the girls and I stopped at Sonic on the way home from Jenna's school. I ordered what everyone wanted: cheese sticks for Julia, tots for Jenna and me and an ice cream cone for my mom.

When the Sonic girl showed up with our order, she had a bag with the cheese sticks and tots, and an ice cream cone WITH NO ICE CREAM IN IT. She said, "You wanted just a cone, right?" I said no, that I had ordered an ice cream cone -- meaning with the ice cream in the cone. She looked kind of embarrassed and I was trying really hard not to laugh because I didn't want her to think I was laughing at her. Then I looked over at my mom, who was trying to laugh silently and, as a result, was convulsing and turning blue. The Sonic girl brought the cone back with ice cream in it and all was well. We've been laughing about it ever since, though.

Fast Food Fun

Chad was leaving for a youth trip yesterday after church and asked me to go get lunch for the four of us and bring it back to the church so he could work on loading up the van. Here's the conversation I had in the drive-through at Sonic:

SONIC PERSON: Welcome to Sonic. How may I help you?

ME: I need a #1 with a Dr Pepper...

SP: Do you want cheddar peppers or anything else?

ME: No... (meaning I didn't want the cheddar peppers, and I started to give the rest of the order)

SP: Your total is $4.32, drive through please.

ME: Wait -- I need to finish ordering.

SP: (Five minutes of silence)

I backed the car up and pulled up again hoping to trigger whatever it is that tells them someone is in the drive-through.

SP: Welcome to Sonic. How may I help you?

ME: I need to finish ordering.

SP: Oh. What did you order?

So I was finally able to order everything. Then I sat in the drive-through for another ten minutes and there was still a car ahead of me. I didn't have all the time in the world because Chad was on a schedule. So I drove out of the line and went to the Wendy's next door.

WENDY'S PERSON: Welcome to Wendy's. How may I help you?

ME: I need a #1 with a Dr Pepper...

WP: Your total is $4.32. Drive through, please.

Somehow the fast-food gods intervened and I was able to get back to the church with food for all four of us (including a salad for me. The #1 was for Chad, for those of you tracking my veggie progress.) But I gotta tell ya, one of the things I have enjoyed about becoming vegetarian is that I don't have to deal with fast-food establishments very much any more. There isn't much for veggie people at those places except for fries and desserts, and I might as well get something healthy from somewhere else.

I now know that ordering at a drive-through requires the not so easy skill of getting your entire order out in one breath quickly -- before they total you out, tell you to drive through and shut down the line of communication between them and your car. So I've been practicing. Here goes:

"I-NEED-A-#1-WITH-A-DR-PEPPER-AND-TWO-HOT-DOGS-WITH-NOTHING-ON-THEM-BECAUSE-I-HAVE-STRANGE-CHILDREN-WHO-DO-NOT-BELIEVE-IN-CONDIMENTS-AND-I-NEED-A-DEAD-ANIMAL-SALAD-WITH-NO-DEAD-ANIMALS-ON-IT-BECAUSE-I-AM-A-VEGETARIAN-HIPPIE-FREAK-AND-A-COOKIE-DOUGH-BLAST-THAT'S-IT-THANKS."