Yorno Dean

I always knew that McYorno was quite the gourmet chef; you know, like Paula Dean. She always made the best plain boiled spaghetti noodles for dinner in college. So it was no surprise when so many of you asked for her Spinach Tortellini soup recipe. haha.  In all seriousness, this soup is quite delicious. Jason and I eat it all the time; I make it at least once a month from October to February and it lasts us a good week.  I have even brought it to church potlucks a few times and it always gets eaten up. It's just that it's SO easy... not really much cooking to it - just dumping.

Who is Yorno, you ask? Well, she's one of my very best friends from college, Elizabeth Yorn McDonald. We lived together for 3 years... but let's be honest, Liz. You pretty much lived in our room freshman year too. Why I do I call her McYorno, you ask?  Well, one time freshman year when we were hanging out with Bo Rhinehart (yes, that would be Bo Rhinehart of NeedToBreathe... we used to hang out back in the day... before he became all famous and everything), Bo said "Hey. What if instead of of Liz, your name was Diz, and instead of Yorn, your last name was Yorno. Then you'd be Diz Yorno." (get it... like DiGiorno)  Bo also got REALLY mad when he found out Liz wasn't ACTUALLY related to Pete Yorn like she had led him to believe, but that's another story.  Anyway... later on Liz got married and became Liz McDonald, but Yorno had become such a part of her that all we can do now is call her McYorno.

 And because no blog post in complete without pictures, here are all my BEST* pictures of Yorno :-)

And here is the woman who made her Yorno, and the man who made her MCyorno.

And because she only USUALLY has crimped hair and makes goofy faces, but not always, here is a picture of Yorno smiling normally and looking quite beautiful :-)

Anyway, I just figured I couldn't give you the Spinach Tortellini soup recipe without paying tribute to the one who gave it to me. So without further ado, here is the recipe with Yorno's original directions and then what I actually do in case you are interested. enjoy!

*I did, in fact, get permission to post embarrassing pictures of my good friend before I did it :-)

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 bunch fresh spinach (washed, drained & chopped) or 1 box frozen spinach *I use frozen and just drop the whole thing in and let it thaw in the broth as it's all heating up
• 1 bag frozen cheese tortellini
• 2 large cans chicken broth *I use bullion cubes and I don't know how much is in 2 large cans so I just do 4-6 cups of broth (I think I used to just do 4 cups but I noticed when I reheated it there didn't seem to be enough broth so now I add more)
• 3 cans diced/stewed tomatoes
• 1 lb mushrooms (cleaned and cut) *I don't like mushrooms so I leave this part out
• Ground pepper, basil, oregano or italian season to taste
• Parmesan cheese

DIRECTIONS

• Mix broth, tomatoes, spinach & seasonings - bring to a boil
• Simmer with lid ajar for aprox 1.5hr *I am lazy and never think about making dinner that far in advance. I usually let it simmer for like 20 min and it still tastes delish.
• Add tortellini & mushrooms, bring to boil, and let simmer for 15 min.
• Top with parmesan cheese! *this is a must! it's oh-so-good with the cheese on top!