Family of Killer Cooks: Throwing down at Brown (courtesy of Kelly Sanford)

College students aren't commonly known to cook and prepare meals more complicated than frozen pizza but then again you don't know my talented, brilliant cousin Kelly (cooking isn't the only thing that run in the fam;). Also, can I say how awesome it is to get an email from a dear cousin I don't get a chance to catch up with very often? Awesome. Despite busting her ass at Brown University, Kelly cooked a beautiful meal AND managed to send along photos of this lovely chicken tortellini soup. Here's what she has to say about the process...

Since I don't have a car and the nearest grocery store is a fifteen minutes walk away, my roommates and I order our groceries online and get them delivered to us. In some ways it is convenient, but it also has its drawbacks since you can't actually SEE what you are getting. I made the mistake of ordering split chicken breast instead of boneless skinless chicken breast. After ripping the flesh from the bone in order to get at just the meat (letting out my inner savage) I was left with a lot of bone with remnants of flesh on it. I felt bad wasting any of the meat, so I figured I'd try making my own chicken stock with all the bones. After trolling through a bunch of different cooking recipes to get an idea of how this is actually done, I threw them in a big pot with some carrots, half of an old onion, a sprig of fresh rosemary and a hunk of parmesan rind and then let it simmer for 4 hours or so. Then a couple days later I made chicken tortellini soup with sauteed onions and carrots and cheese tortellini. I seasoned it with salt, pepper, garlic, lots of oregano, a bit of basil, and some soy sauce. Served it with parmesan cheese and some roasted garlic/rosemary sweet potatoes. Mmmmmm... Making the stock from scratch was so satisfying, and it provided a richer flavor than the canned soup. Plus it feels good not to waste anything. yay!