Copycat Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana Soup

Thought I'd share this copycat Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana soup with you today since we've made it a few times and still love it. I've followed instructions from a few different sites, and have sort of mooshed them all together and added a few of my own tips to make it better. I hate dirtying more than one pan for soup, so I've turned this into a one-pot soup.

HERE'S WHAT YOU NEED:
1 large onion, diced
2 cloves/ 2 tsp minced garlic
salt and pepper
2 tablespoons vegetable/olive oil
1.25-1.5 pounds mild ground Italian sausage
2 cans (about 4 cups) chicken broth
4 cups hot water
3 large russet baking potatoes
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
1 cup heavy whipping cream
3-4 cups kale, chopped (1 big bunch)
1/4 cup bacon bits (optional)

AND HERE'S WHAT YOU DO:

Heat a large soup pot over medium high heat and add oil. Dice your onion, and add to the pan. Saute with garlic, salt and pepper, until onions are soft and going brown. Don't burn them; you're caramelizing. Add a teeny bit of water, oil, or broth if you start to stick or burn. Saute for about 3-5 minutes.

Add ground sausage to the party, and brown it until it's all the way cooked. While this is cooking, wash and chop your potatoes. You want to slice them into discs about 1/4-1/3 inch thick, then either quarter or third those discs, depending on how large you want your potato chunks.

When the sausage is cooked, add the chicken broth, water, potatoes, and extra salt to the pot. It will be pretty full, but just mix it all together. Turn the heat up to high and bring it to a boil. Cover, and lower heat medium so it will boil for about 15-20 minutes, or until the potatoes are cooked through.

Meanwhile, wash and cut your kale. Slice the rib out of each kale leaf, then cut the leaf into ribbon strips or chunks. Most recipes call for 2 cups of kale for this amount of soup, but I say at least 3, and while your'e at it, you might as well use the whole bunch. Kale usually comes in bunches at the store, and I usually get nearly 4 cups out of it. Just go for it. It will wilt down, and it tastes savory and yummy. Plus, kale is good for you. In fact, most of the ingredient amounts have been increased in my version to make the soup a little bit more hearty and chunky.

When the potatoes are the consistency you desire (If they cook longer, they'll start to break down, and your soup will be a little more chowder-like than a thin soup, just FYI. So if that's what you're going for, let it cook a little longer.), mix in the cream and kale, and bacon bits if you desire, although I never add them. This soup is amazing without them. Allow the soup to simmer gently for 5 minutes or so to heat the cream and wilt the kale. You may need to turn down the heat to low.

You're ready to taste to see if you need more salt/pepper. Also, if you want it more spicy, you can use hot Italian sausage, or add red pepper flakes near the end.

This soup is a crazy hot temperature, so you might need to let it rest off the heat or in bowls for 5-10 minutes before eating. Either way, be SOUPER (haha) careful and blow, because it is the worst to burn your tastebuds before being able to enjoy it! It goes really well with rolls or bread and butter, and would probably be amazing in a bread bowl.


Plan on 30-50 minutes.

When each pot is separated into 8 heaping bowls, each bowl is about 500 calories, according to myfitnesspal. When I eat it for dinner, I eat one heaping bowl (I've never measured it, but it seems like a little bit more than the amount of soup I get in a can of Campbell's Chunky Soup). My guess is it's close to 2 1/2 cups. Also, it costs like, $12 for all this stuff.

february, birthdays, and stuff

Our  lives have been pretty exciting this month. That's a change, right?  :)

I've been pretty good about taking pictures this month, so I'll show you in photos!

First off, Trevor and I read the last installment of The Wheel of Time. I can't talk about it yet. It's too overwhelming. Just FYI, it's amazing. And you're missing out if you don't read it.

Valentine's Day happened and we had a fancy shmancy steak dinner at home with salad and a garlic loaf. Oh, and we got a sparkling lemonade from Trader Joe's that was crazy good. I want more :)

This was our 9th Valentine's Day together. So weird. We're at the point where we can't remember all of them. I got us a joint gift of Star Trek cookie cutters, which we haven't tried yet, but I'm super excited to.

Then my birthday happened. I'm 25 :/

My work got a giant cake for me and Bob Marley.

And decorated my office; I'm now a pretty, pretty princess.

On my actual birthday, I had probably the best birthday I've had in years. It fell on a Saturday... hooray! So we got up early, had breakfast at Gandolfo's, and went to the Mummies Exhibit at The Leonardo downtown. The exhibit was interesting, informative, and kind of sad. They don't allow photography inside, but this is a little art project we did while we were exploring the rest of the museum. If you go, be sure to go into the nature section full of paintings and art about the world. There's a video about the birds and the bees that is seriously hilarious. Not really for kids though.

We had lunch at a new place in Sugarhouse called Flatbread Neapolitan Pizzeria. The flatbread was delicious (actually, that's probably an understatement; I think about it all the time... sausage, goat cheese, roasted red pepper...), but the pizza was a bit soggy. Didn't matter though; I love trying new places and eating at slightly upscale places that make me feel special :) I know, kind of shallow. Trevor humored me all day! I couldn't have asked for more than trying new food, learning a little bit, and hanging out with Trevor all day.

We had a relaxing afternoon at home :)

Then we went to Bombay House! OMG. I took a picture of the soup that we had first, but then I was too distracted by how crazy good the food was to take pictures after that. This was the perfect place to go. We tried lamb for the first time, and loved it. And all the spices were great. Nothing was gross--which is rare, from what we've experienced. It turned out that our waiter was an old client of one of my previous employers, and he gave us free soup! I crave this soup all the time now. This was a spinach Saag Shorba, and it was creamy, savory, and spinachy.

We had some great family dinners for a bunch of birthdays throughout the month. I love being with our families. It's nice to me knowing that we have them around and can count on them to be friends with :)

The sun came out! After a month of temperatures in the single digits! The sun is starting to set later now, which is such a relief to me. I hate dark evenings. Plus, it means more photo sessions!

Trevor worked really hard and got us bikes! Both are used, but we're really grateful for them. We've been spending some time getting them ready to ride--new seats, fixing tires, that kind of thing. And this week we've been trying to use them more. We had kind of an ordeal with a stripped nut that almost ruined everything, but we made it through. Can't wait for warmer weather!

I started playing Minecraft with Trevor. Oh no. 

 Hung out with family. Got some cute pictures of my niece. She's crazy. Likes to jump a lot when she knows she's on camera, haha :)

This is supposed to go up before Valentine's Day... but Trevor let me use my camera outside on him with a rain sleeve for like 2 minutes. It was snowing so hard! But it was fun to be out in the elements with it. Plus now I have a picture that reminds me how handsome Trevor is. Lookit his cute beard :)

And FINALLY. We're getting a dog :) It's been a long process of figuring out if it's possible, how we can manage, and what we'll get. But we are doing it! We're meeting with one this weekend to see if we'd like to adopt him. So I'll share more about that later when we know for sure!

Chicken Biscuit Pot Pie

Yeah, this is yet another recipe... I like it. You like me (hopefully, otherwise, why are you here?). We're a happy family :)

I just really like making food. And I like it even more when it turns out to be edible. And then sometimes it's pretty on top of that. How can I resist?

This recipe is a sort of variation on the regular chicken pot pie recipe I posted a while back. Only I've refined my filling process, and it uses biscuits instead of pie crust.

SIDE NOTE: Do you guys have a hard time spelling "biscuits" like I do? EVERY time, I try to spell "buscuits," and it's driving me crazy.

This was delicious comfort food for dinner, plus made very reasonable leftovers for lunch. That right there is a huge factor in whether or not I consider a recipe a success. You know, whether they make good leftovers that make me WANT to not go out to lunch when I'm at work. This recipe = success in that department.

HERE'S WHAT YOU NEED FOR THE FILLING:
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1/4 large onion (or half a small)
2 tablespoons cooking oil
1/2 tsp kosher salt
pepper
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup (heaping) flour
1/2 tsp kosher salt
pepper
2 tsp onion powder
1-2 tsp garlic powder (or 2 cloves minced w/onions)
1 Tbls dried parsley
1-2 tsp dried rosemary
1-2 tsp dried italian seasoning
1 tsp rubbed sage (or some other sage equivalent)
2 cups chicken broth (low sodium)
1 1/2 - 2 cups half-and-half
1 1/2 cups frozen peas and carrots
optional: chopped celery cooked with the onions
optional: any other vegetable you want in your pie :) If frozen, add with peas; if not, cook with onions.

HERE'S WHAT YOU NEED FOR THE BUSCUITES BISCUITS:
3 cups flour
1 Tbls baking powder
1 Tbls sugar
1 tsp table salt (or 2 tsp kosher salt)
3/4 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 cup cold butter
1/4 cup shortening
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup milk

HERE'S WHAT YOU DO:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

I started by getting my onions and chicken chopped, and cooking. Dice the chicken and onion in equal sizes, but doing it fairly small. Cook them in a saute pan with oil, salt, and pepper until the chicken is done. Remove  all the chicken to a warm plate (it's okay to leave a few onions in the pan for flavor).

While the chicken is cooking, combine all the dry ingredients for the biscuits in a bowl and set aside. This is just the Better Homes and Gardens buttermilk biscuit recipe. It's so simple, but it's actually the first biscuit recipe I've tried that I really like. It might be the buttermilk I used this time :)

Melt butter in the saute pan. Add salt, pepper, dried seasonings, and flour. Whisk till combined and thick. It will be like paste or a dough all on it's own. Cook this for a few minutes. The flavors of all the dry spices and butter will start to get really aromatic, and it's kind of amazing :)

Whisk in the broth. Once combined and thickened, whisk in the half-and-half. It will start to get all bubbly and thick again. This is when you add the chicken back in, and the frozen peas and carrots. Taste for seasonings. I had to add more garlic powder, salt, and rubbed sage till it was the intensity I wanted. With all the cream and biscuits, you kind of need a bolder sauce flavor.

Transfer the filling to a large 9x13 glass baking dish.

Cut in the butter and shortening to the biscuit dry ingredients. You can do this by hand with two butter knives, with a pastry blender, or by putting it all into your food processor. Cut it in until it's crumbly. Just don't use your hands or you'll melt the butter, and then your biscuits won't be good. I left a few larger chunks of butter and shortening (pea size) and those made the biscuits crispy but flaky.

Pour the milk and buttermilk into a well in the center of the dry ingredients; stir with a spoon until combined. I added a touch more milk because it was too dry to combine. Just use your own judgement. Finish mixing it with your hand, being gentle, but getting all the flour combined. Don't turn it with your hand more than 10 times. Pick off balls of dough and drop them into the filling baking pan. I got 12 large balls of dough. Next time I make it, I will probably use 3/4 of the dough for the pie, and just bake the rest by themselves. There wasn't QUITE enough filling compared to biscuits. But it was still really good. If you like a more liquidy pie, use all the dough.

Bake for 20 minutes, or until the biscuits are done, and golden on top. Rest for 5-10 minutes. EAT.

While you're here...

This is what it sounds/looks like right out of the oven :) SO HEAVENLY. I wish you could smell it!

Jamie Oliver's Crispy and Sticky Chicken Thighs with Squashed New Potatoes and Tomatoes

I forgot to post this a few weeks ago, but it's worth the lateness. This was the second time I'd made this recipe and it doesn't disappoint. It takes about an hour to an hour and a half from start to finish. When I first discovered Jamie Oliver, I watched his Oliver's Twist TV show, and thought he was a weirdo. Now that I've watched more of his recent work, read a lot of his recipes, and seen his work with the Food Revolution, I still think he's a weirdo, but I have to admit he's got style. I think his combination of British food, plus healthy food, plus just his own personal taste makes for some of the most unique food I've ever seen. I totally recommend checking out his other stuff, and his philosophies on healthy eating and humane treatment of animals.

The herb Jamie Oliver uses in his original recipe is just fresh oregano, but I rarely have that on hand, so I've used Italian seasoning and parsley. And this time, I even added some leftover rosemary--fit it just right.

You can see Jamie's original recipe here; I haven't made changes very much at all. Mostly just to the seasonings.

HERE'S WHAT YOU NEED:

1 3/4 pounds new potatoes, scrubbed

Kosher/sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper

8-12 boned chicken thighs, skin on (preferably free-range or organic)

Olive oil

Kosher salt and pepper

1 1/4 pounds cherry tomatoes (or smaller)

1 bunch of fresh oregano (or subsitute dried seasonings; oregano, thyme, Italian seasonings, rosemary)

More olive oil

Red wine vinegar

HERE'S WHAT YOU DO:

Boil the potatoes in salted water. Easy peasy.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Cut up your chicken thighs into 3 pieces and put them in a boil. Add salt, pepper, and oil, and use your hands to combine it all together.

Heat a large cast-iron frying pan over medium high heat. Ideally, this would be cast-iron so you could transfer it straight to the oven, but if you have to transfer to a baking dish, it won't be the end of the world. Place the chicken thighs skin side down in the pan to start. Cook for 10 minutes, tossing, until almost cooked.

While the chicken is cooking, poke all your tomatoes with a knife, and put them in a bowl covered with boiling water. Let sit for a few minutes, and drain. When they've cooled off, you should be able to squeeze/pinch off the skins. This step isn't necessary, but when the flesh is exposed during cooking, the sweetness adds to the cooking a lot more. Jamie says, "They will become lovely and sweet when cooked, and their intense flavor will infuse the potatoes." How can you pass that up?

"Bash" the oregano Jamie style (or just mince it). Drain your potatoes and lightly crush each one with tongs or your thumb (burns your thumb though). Combine the potatoes, chicken and tomatoes in the cast-iron pan, or a baking dish. Coat with oil, seasonings, and red wine vinegar. Jamie says to spread everything out into one layer, but I've done it both ways--you can heap it all up into two layers, or one; it's good both ways. Bake for 40 minutes.

Creamy Roasted Tomato and Shrimp Pasta

Trevor and I have made this simple pasta a few times now, and I think it's turned into one of my favorites. It's pretty easy, but feels fancy--that's the best kind of pasta :)

WHAT YOU NEED:
for roasted tomatoes
5 roma tomatoes
2-3 teaspoons minced garlic
2-3 tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
for pasta
1 pound pasta (spaghetti, penne, rotini, whatever floats your boat)
1 tablespoon table salt
for sauce
1/2 pound shrimp--deveined and peeled
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon oil
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 14 ounce can diced tomatoes (or crushed)
1 tablespoon italian seasoning
1/2 teaspoon rubbed sage
1 bay leaf
1/2 tablespoon dried parsley
1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper
seasonings/salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon sugar or honey
1/2 cup cream

WHAT YOU DO:

First things first, you have to get your tomatoes roasting. You'll want them roasting the entire time you're getting everything else ready. 

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Quarter 5 roma tomatoes, then cut those quarters in half. You can de-seed them if you don't like the seeds and juices, but I think they add good flavor to the pasta sauce later. Place the tomatoes on a foil lined baking sheet, drizzle with oil (olive or vegetable works), and top with minced garlic, salt and pepper. Use your hands to mix it all together, then spread it out evenly. Roast in the oven for 20-30 minutes while you do the rest, turning them with a spatula once halfway through. (If, by the time you're done with the pasta, your tomatoes aren't as roasted as you want them to be, turn the oven up to 500 or even broil for a few minutes to get the amount of char/roast you want. Watch carefully.)

At this point, prep your shrimp, if they aren't already. They need to be defrosted, deveined, and peeled. 

Next, start a large pot of water boiling, with about a tablespoon of regular table salt (no need to waste kosher salt on boiling water). Your water should taste like sea salt--this will make your noodles actually taste like noodles later on. Cook your noodles to al dente.

While the noodles are cooking, heat some oil over medium high heat in a large saute pan. Add garlic and shrimp, season with salt and pepper, and saute quickly. Once the shrimps have JUST reached pink all the way through, turn down the heat to medium low. If using crushed tomatoes, pour them straight into the pan now. If using diced tomatoes, blend them up really quick with an immersion blender, food processor, or blender (you could even crush them with a fork) before adding to the shrimp. I like using the diced tomatoes because I can control how chunky my tomatoes are, depending on my mood.

Season the tomato sauce with italian seasoning (or oregano and thyme to your taste), sage, parsley, ground red pepper, bay leaf, salt and pepper. Taste the sauce and use your judgement. The sauce is going to be tamed by adding cream later, so you want it to taste fairly strong. To me, this sauce whispers slightly of something creole or cajun with the thyme and shrimp, so feel free to spice it up. It doesn't need to be HOT spicy to be spiced; go easy on the red pepper if you don't want a burn. Add the sugar or honey to taste.

(Keep an eye on your pasta. Drain the noodles when they're ready, and return them to the pot.)


Add 1/2 cup of any cream of your choice to the tomato sauce. I use whipping cream because, well, it will be the best. But half-and-half or 2% would work if you want to go lighter. It just won't be as creamy. Also be careful using lower fat creams/milks because they curdle when heated too quickly. Make sure to turn your heat down and slowly bring the sauce back up to temperature. Feel free to increase or decrease the amount of cream based on what you prefer. Re-season till it's how you want it to taste.


Combine the sauce with the noodles, and add your roasted tomatoes to the pot. Gently combine so you don't destroy all the roasted tomatoes.

Selling our Xbox, Fluval Edge Aquarium, and some other stuff

We've had some unexpected medical bills arise, so we've decided to sell some stuff we don't use anymore. If anyone has any interest in any of these things, it'd be a big help :)

• We're selling our Xbox and all our gaming stuff, so here's the link to the ad if you are interested in checking it out. We're trying to sell it as a bundle, but feel free to let me know if you'd be interested in pieces and you'll be first in line if it doesn't sell as a package in a day or two. There's 23 games, 3 wireless controllers, a remote, and extra memory.

• We're also selling our Fluval Edge Aquarium, which is an amazing fish tank! We've had some fish and shrimp for a few years, and have had our fill :) It is almost entirely self-maintaining. We change the filters every few months, and it keeps itself sparkling clean. All you do is add water every few weeks. I really like that the water fills all the way up to the top, so it's a complete water cube. If ever there was a classy fishtank, this is it, haha :) We're including all our fishy accessories too: food, pebbles, decorations, water treatments, cleaning tools, net, and extra filters. We probably spent $200 easily on all this stuff. Here's the link to the aquarium ad. 

• We are also still selling our mid-2010 MacBook Pro. It has been a super computer :) The display is great, and we've taken really good care of it. It is fully capable of gaming like World of Warcraft, and all my photography editing needs. Here's the ad with all the details. 

• We are also selling a Dell desktop tower we've had laying around for a few years. We actually don't even know all the specs on it, just that it works and runs XP. We dont' have any of the necessary accessories to even get into it and find out what it is, but we know it will need to be restored. Here's the link for that ad. 

Rachael Ray's Minestrone Soup w/Garlic Bread Croutons

Made this soup for lunch today and I'm so looking forward to eating leftovers for lunch this week :) For me, this is the perfect combination of broth, noodle, and vegetable that just gets my ooky sit in a blanket and fawn over all things amazing feelings going.

Plus, I love how easy broth based soups are to make. It's basically dice, saute, boil, eat. Rachael's recipe doesn't call for garbanzo beans, but to me, it's not minestrone without them.

HERE'S WHAT YOU NEED
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound zucchini
2 ribs celery
1 carrot
1 onion
1 bay leaf
2 cloves garlic
salt and pepper
34 ounces (4 cups) vegetable or chicken stock
15 ounces cannelinni beans (white beans), rinsed
15 ounces crushed tomatoes
15 ounces garbanzo beans
1/4 pound penne pasta
basil

Croutons:
2 tablespoons butter
1 clove garlic
4-6 slices of italian bread
1/2 cup grated parigiano-reggiano (or parmesan)
parsley

HERE'S WHAT YOU DO:

Chop your vegetables: Quarter the zucchini and carrot and dice; finely dice the onion; cut the celery into strips and dice; mince the garlic. Heat olive oil over medium high heat in a big pot. Add vegetables, salt and pepper, and bay leaf, then saute for 8 minutes or until vegetables are softening.

Add broth, tomatoes, and beans and bring to a boil.

Add pasta and simmer over medium heat until al dente. Add basil and keep on low. Add 1 cup of water if you want it to be more soupy.

While the soup is simmering, melt the butter in a small pan over medium-low heat. Add 1 clove garlic and swirl for 30 seconds. Toast the bread slices under the broiler for a minute on each side. Remove and lower oven to 450 degrees. Brush toast on one side with butter, and top with cheese and parsley. Return to oven until cheese is melted.

After I used all the butter, I scooped the leftover garlic into my pot of soup. No need to waste it :) Adjust seasoning to your liking.

Serve with croutons in shallow bowls.

Beefy Mac 'n Cheese

 Hey there buddies! I made some macaroni and cheese tonight and it let me take pictures of it :)

Mmm... cheesy

If you want to make it, it turned out creamier and cheesier than any other mac n cheese I've ever made :) Not grainy, not floury.

I started with a recipe from here for some pretty standard home made mac n cheese, and made do with some stuff I had around the kitchen haha :) Trevor and I have made a decision to try to eat only organic meat (you know, due to all the horribleness that happens to animals nowadays when they're being raised). So we got some organic ground beef from cows that are free-range, grass-fed, etc. We're eating less meat, but the meat we do want to try to eat will be happy when it was alive :)

Moving on.

HERE'S WHAT YOU NEED:

12 ounces macaroni noodles
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 pound ground beef
1 teaspoon kosher salt
ground pepper
4 Tablespoons unsalted butter
1/3 cup flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 heaping teaspoon ground mustard powder
ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 1/2 cups (1 can) evaporated milk
1 1/2 cups milk
2-3 cups of shredded cheese (gouda, cheddar, mozzarella)
1 cup more shredded cheddar

HERE'S WHAT YOU DO:

Boil your noodles, silly. Put 2 teaspoons of the salt in with the water to make them taste good. Cook al-dente--for real. You want them to be AL DENTE so that when they finish cooking in the oven, they don't get mushy.

Brown your beef with salt and pepper. This is super easy.

Preheat your oven to 375.

Drain the noodles. In your empty noodle pot, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the flour and stir, stir, stir. Cook the roux until it gets a little brown. If you learn how to do this, you'll be able to make a bagillion different sauces, and you can tell all your friends you cooked a roux.

Add the salt, mustard, paprika, and pepper. And then add the evaporated milk and regular milk. I actually really enjoyed the substitution of evaporated milk, it was creamier and harder to over-heat the cheese. Be careful when using lower fat milk because you can't heat it too high or too quickly or it will scald, and your cheese will separate. This is what causes the sauce to feel grainy.

Stir with a whisk until it's all combined. Keep stirring with the whisk over medium heat until the sauce thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon. Turn the heat down to the lowest setting and mix in the 2-3 cups of cheese. I had 3 slices of gouda, a cup of cheddar, and a cup of pizza blend cheeses--any good strong melting cheeses would probably do just fine :) Although, the more cheddar you have, the more it will taste like traditional yellow mac n cheese. Make sure not to heat it or boil it after this point or the cheese will separate.

Stir the cheese in slowly until it's all melted. Remove from heat. Combine the noodles and beef with the sauce, then poor everything into a 9x13 baking pan. Top with another cup or so of cheese, preferably cheddar, and a 1/2 teaspoon of paprika.

Bake for 20 minutes.

Aaaand here's a few more pictures of the same thing since I love taking pictures :)