Something Squirrelly this Way Comes

About a month back (give or take) I discovered a little blue bag of tortellini in the pasta aisle by Barilla. It was on sale so I figured, "Why not?" and grabbed two. One was garlic and cheese, the other Three Cheese.

Not long after that I made the garlic and cheese (or maybe it was mushroom and ricotta?) and thought not bad. A week and a half ago I made the Three Cheese one and thought holy freaking heck this is too darn good to be from a bag!!!. All I did was cook it and top it with extra virgin olive oil, black pepper and dried basil. Divine!!!

Last weekend I stopped at the grocery store and picked up two large bags of the Three Cheese Tortellini and a small bag of Spinach & Ricotta (I think). By large bag I mean it's half again as large as the small bag - 4 servings at most. On Friday (or was it Saturday?) I made the Three Cheese Tort. and topped it with the same ingredients except this time I added freshly diced tomatoes. Oh. My. Dog! that was good!! So good that I didn't want to stop eating it although I was stuffed.

Yesterday I made the second bag and this time I added a little garlic powder to my tomatoes, extra virgin olive oil, black pepper and dried basil. I can't believe I'm going to say this. It was better without the garlic.

Shocking, right? ME saying something was better without the garlic. I swear a chill went up my back when I realized that. It was like the world no longer made sense! Garlic always makes things taste better! My rationalization is that my garlic powder has died and that I added too much. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!