SOPA TUSCANA!

When I returned from my cousin’s house after the Holidays i was craving that sopa tuscana that she made. The soup made with sausage and potatoes brings me back to the one of two times i ever went to the Olive Garden. (because apparently you don’t learn lessons the first time around- I despise Huge restaurant chains like Olive Garden because a lot of what makes food special is tradition and that homemade touch. I just feel a lot of it gets lost in being a Chain…. i digress) The first time i went to Olive Garden was with my cousin a few years ago when the endless soup and salad fad was all the rage. We went there for lunch and the unlimited soup and salad was included with the meal (jeez louise); I ordered chicken parm and when asked about my soup my cousin said sopa tuscana because it was really good. It was a cloudy broth that had chunks of soft potatoes, carmelized onions, crumbled sausage and a smoky bacon taste. I had 3 bowls and brought my chicken parm home (which is where i discovered my hatred for Olive Garden and they horrid sauces).
Well, My cousin made this soup over Christmas break and it was even better than I remembered it. I helped with the prep and figured I could play around with this recipe on my own.
And here are the goods!
2 tbsp milk, 1 tbsp flour, 1 lb of smoked bacon (i used turkey), 1 med sized onion, 6 cups of chicken broth, 6 potatoes sliced into rounds, 1 lb of sausage (sweet or hot), 1 bunch of kale (washed, trimmed, and cut into large pieces)

I washed my kale and ripped the leaves into chunks, discarding the stem and ugly pieces. i set them in a colander to drip dry until i was ready for them.

I roughly diced an onion and sauteed it in a pan with a light drizzle of olive oil.

Roughly diced up some smokey turkey bacon…and added them to the onions. Sautee until the bacon slightly crisps and the onions carmelize.

Get a large pot out and add all your chicken broth to the pot. Start to heat the broth since we now have to cook potatoes in there.

After scrubbing some yukon gold potatoes, I sliced them into rounds and added them to the now simmering chicken broth. I leave the skin on because i loves it… but if it grosses you out you can peel them.

Add you bacon and onions to the chicken broth and potatoes and get ready to cook the sausage. I was looking for the giant tube of jimmy dean sausage filling but I couldnt find any. If you find it, that would be ideal but if not, grab a lb of sausage, take them out of the casing and cook them up on the stove top using your cooking utensil to break them up into bits.

MMMM. Sausage crumbles. Do not taste them crumbles as you cook them. they are more addicitng than they appear.

Once the sausage is cooked…

Add it to the pot of other yummy stuff. Season to your liking. I added some italion seasoning, granulated garlic, salt and lots of cracked black pepper. Simmer for 20 minutes.

Add all of your kale… don’t worry- it will wilt down and turn into something gorgeous.

OH YEA! thats the stuff! We’re almost done! take a small bowl and put a few tablespoons of the broth in the bowl. add the milk and flour and whisk till there are no lumps. this is our thickening agent in our yummy soup. If you want to experience the full effect of this soup, omit the flour and milk and add 1/4 cup of heavy cream… However, with it being a new year and damn near everyone is on a diet I figured i would lighten this up just a little! once the mixture is lump free pour it into the soup and give it a giant stir. Soup is ready when potatoes are fork tender and kale is soft.

Have a big bowl wearing a warm snuggie and get that cozy feeling (hell, i know I needed it with all this FRIGID weather!)

And look at all those leftovers. Its gonna be a SOUPY week for me!

My version of the soup was a bit more “peppery” than my cousins. the addition of garlic powder made the flavors a lot bolder in the soup- with all the smokiness from the bacon- it could be ommitted and still taste amazing.

My apartment still smells like bacon and onions but thats not such a terrible thing…. unless someone comes over unaware that i made a bacon and onion based soup and thinks i need a shower…

Clean out the Pantry Day!

“I must Not Waste Food!”
“I must Not Waste Food!”
“I must Not Waste Food!”
I am sure with these stupid economic times we all are making an effort to NOT be wasteful, right? I hate throwing away food, So when i start to see the white shelves in myfridge, I know its time to reorder some groceries and use up some of the old.
Kale. I bought a HUGE bunch of kale to make green monsters. But I came to realize after the first day of a real green monster that I don’t care for bits of kale in my breakfast. So there went that. But on one particular day I really wanted something salty, like fries and crispy like chips. So I decided on kale chips! Rinse your kale really well and cut up into big chunks being sure to remove the spines (they turn to twigs in the roasting process). Preheat oven to 425*.

I also had some “meatloaf” meat from the butcher. Its a mix of ground beef, pork and veal. I figured since I was making Kale chips, I could make some burgers too. But my pantry was also looking kind of bare so I threw in some Montreal Steak Seasoning and Country Bobs sauce. I figured I could be experimental since I was trying to use up the last of the meat. I also ran out of bread so these burgers were going to be big suckas!

Mixed it all up and then noticed something in my fridge that might be nearing is death.

Cheese. When Henry’s fam went to ecuador some weeks back, they came back with some cheese. I dont know what its called… but it stinks and tastes really good. If I learned anything from Andrew Zimmern its that you shouldn’t smell your food first if you are easily influenced by smells. On smells alone this cheese would have went right to the trash. But I love cheese- stinky ones and all! This is considered a fresh cheese. Its a cross between fresh mozzarella and cream cheese. It has a great flavor thats pungent and creamy and I thought would make a great contrast with my tangy burgers.

grabbed a patty.

Put some stinky cheese on it.

then put the other half of the burger on top. MMM. Cheese pockets! I didn’t feel guilty since I was omitting the bread. this sort of became a low carb dinner.

I grilled these babies on a screamin hot grill pan. And whle these were cooking, I threw in the kale. I let the kale roast for 10 minutes. i checked on them and wanted them a lil more crisp. I like mine a little burnt. 🙂 Must be the puerto rican in me.

Look whats ready!!! When the burgers cooked up the cheese oozed out. The stinky cheese tastes FANTASTIC when its melted. I think I will be trying this cheese in a soup!

Naturally, everything was ready at different times and because I was so friggin hungry, I ate the kale chips first. SO YUM! If you can get over the green part you really wouldnt know this was a roasted green! If you are a chip addict i dare you to try these! they make great low cal, low carb and fat free substitute for french fries and chips… a bit of a warning tho- these should only be eaten fresh- they dont hold over well testure-wise over night.

I scooped up all the melted cheese in the pan and put it on top of the burger. It was juicy and I was impressed with the seasoning. I usually add so much stuff but since i was out of damn near everything I improvised and it came out great. I love the contrast with the cheese and beef. And i enjoyed the 2nd burger even more the following day!

Coughing my lungs out

*COUGH*
*COUGH*
*Sniffle*

Yes. That nasty freaking cough that everyone had found its way to my lungs! Its horrid! I have no other cold symptoms but the hacking my lungs out is torturous for my coworkers and roommate enough. I scared my dog in the middle of the night with my incessant hacking.
((((MEDICINE))))
Hopefully i will be on the mend by the end of the week!
I got a pressie in the mail the other day and I was soo excited.
I love Coffee! I have a cup everyday. I used to work at a coffee shop which is where my addiction comes from. POM sent me their new iced coffee samples and so far… im a LOVIN!

I tried the cafe au lait first which is pretty much like most of the bottled coffee beverages on the market except this one has antioxidants in it. I really enjoyed the level of sweetness in this and the amount of milk. It was a creamy and perfect addition to my morning breakfast.

Speaking of breakfast…

Loving the color contrast on this pic. It could be a painting! I took a block of frozen spinach- cooked it, squeezed all the water out of it and drooped it into a pan of 1 egg and 2 egg whites.

Its a DR. SEUSS SPECIAL minus the ham. green eggs anyone??

with PARM??? yum!

I’m a big fan of the Parmesan cheese. A Sprinkling of it can do wonders for eggs, steamed veggies, and pretty much anything else that is savory. It doesn’t pack on a lot of calories and adds tons of flavor.

In an eggy mood or something. Followed brekkie up with a deconstructed egg salad sammy. Haven;t had egg salad in a while and used a lil dijon mustard and mayo with salt and pepper to dress the shredded up egg bits. Served on Arnolds 12 Grain Toast.

With a side of salty Kale Chips dipped in Ketchup and hot sauce (Henry’s habits are rubbing off on me)

Started to feel the aches and pains that come with being sick and around dinner time just wanted the comfort of some hot noodly soup.

Got some shredded chicken with sauteed onions.

Noodles and veggies. Slurped my way to comfort.

Still sick though but nothing beats a bowl of soup.

Whats your “go to” method when you start to feel sick?

when i was little as soon as the tickle of the throat started mom had me on echinaccea, vitamin C and Golden seal (YUCK)

Now I just go to the store and get some theraflu.

a Super Healthy Dinner (for a change)

No, your eyes are not deceiving you. Those are Two MAMMOTH chicken legs! Let me just say something about Fresh Directs Organic Chicken… OH MY GOD! These legs are the ones I saved from the Grill when Henry was grilling. So glad he didnt char every piece of chicken i purchased! But I decided to whip out all of the organic veggies I could stand and serve them up with some broiled chicken. I love broiled chicken- but I hate cooking in this heat! so I use my toast-r-oven.

Kath has kale chips like every other day and when i saw some organic greens on sale, kale was on the list so i figured why not. Kale is actually a cinch to make! and once I get my hands on some more I will be cooking it! I took a small bunch of kale, cleaned it really well and let it drip dry in my colander. Once ready, I peeled off the stems because they are too tough to munch. ripped them into bite size pieces and laid them on a cookie sheet, sprayed with oil and sprinkled with sea salt. I put them in the toast-r-oven for 18 minutes on 350 degrees.

While the kale was cooking, i got to my zucchini and sliced it up like match-sticks. I saw this method on Smitten Kitchen and decided to give it a whirl.

I sauteed my match sticks in a little EVOO and crushed garlic, sprinkled with salt. i set them aside. They were done in 5 minutes!!!

While the veggies were cooking and the chicken settling with its yummy juices, I made some chicken flavored Quinoa with some niblets of corn.

then the kale was ready! I took a bite and thought they tasted a lot like chips. Salty, crunchy and had a slight “green” taste to them. Henry was a bit turned off that he was chewing on a crunchy leaf but he shut up when I gave him hot sauce and ketchup. he LOVED it with Ketchup… but he puts ketchup on his eggs so i think the man just really likes ketchup (gag).

Dinner was a bit over the top. I might have been fine with just the kale chips and chicken – but i eat with my eyes.

So… lots of leftovers.

Henry didnt like the Zukes…but no worries, he left his plate unattended again and Mickey ate his greens…and Quinoa.
*sigh*