Tortilla Soup--Linds

I started making my tortilla soup yesterday. I read it before hand and knew it was going to be a lot of work, and I hate complicated meals on Sunday so I did it all yesterday. I had never heard of some of the ingredients (what else is new) like pasilla chiles and cojita cheese. I could only find fresh pasilla chiles, not dried ones like it called for. So I don't know what it was supposed to taste like, but we liked ours. I just used one fresh one. Oh by the way. THE CHICKEN. I was trying to wuss out and buy one that was already cut up into pieces for me, but the store was out of them. I am secretly grateful that they didn't have any because it forced me to cut it all up by myself again. I put the kids down for a nap and went to work. It was so much easier this time because I used a sharp knife, the insides were in a nice little baggy, and I knew what I was doing. So it went much faster, with much less mess and I am no longer scared of whole chickens. I can handle them--no prob.

I had also never had or made those tortilla strip things. I just sliced up some corn tortillas with a pizza cutter/roller and deep fried them. Then I sprinkled kosher salt all over them while they were still hot and they were so yummy in the soup.

I was pretty sick of the whole soup by the time I got it all done and in the fridge. But it was SO nice to pull it all out today and heat it up and serve it with some yummy sides. I didn't have limes, and I forgot to pull the cilantro out of the fridge. But we did have avocado, red onion, and tortilla strips, and regular cheddar cheese (couldn't find the fancy stuff), and sour cream. It was very yummy.

We had some friends over for dinner tonight to share in it with us and they claimed to like it too. Of course, they could have just been being polite, but I'm pretty sure Heather meant it because she complimented it multiple times. :)

And just in case you were wondering, we had a delicious pumpkin roll for dessert.

It was the first time I've made one by myself and it was SOO good. MMmmm....I want to go get the rest out of the fridge and eat it right now at 10:00 p.m. I better go to bed instead.