Week #20 - Olive Garden Style Zuppa Toscana Soup

I was thinking of how much I love soup, salad, and breadsticks at Olive Garden so I decided to try making Zuppa Toscana soup. I found this recipe on Food.com.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb Italian sausage (I like mild sausage)
• 2 large russet baking potatoes, sliced in half, and then in 1/4 inch slices
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1/4 cup bacon bit (optional)
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 cups kale or 2 cups swiss chard, chopped
• 2 (8 ounce) cans chicken broth
• 1 quart water
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream

 

Directions:

1. Chop or slice uncooked sausage into small pieces.
2. Brown sausage in your soup pot.
3. Add chicken broth and water to pot and stir.
4. Place onions, potatoes, and garlic in pot.
5. Cook on medium heat until potatoes are done.
6. Add sausage and bacon.
7. Salt and pepper to taste.
8. Simmer for another 10 minutes.
9. Turn to low heat.
10. Add kale and cream.
11. Heat through and serve.

 

This soup was almost exactly like Olive Garden's! I omitted the bacon and I sauted the onions with the sausage first, but otherwise I followed the recipe. This soup was so good! I will definitely make it again, especially if I get my hands on some Olive Garden salad dressing.

Rating: 5/5

Pumpkin Bread

Today is a day for cooking and baking! I am on fall break so I made swamp soup today, and I also had a craving for pumpkin bread. I found this recipe at Allrecipes.com.

Ingredients

• 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2/3 cup water
• 3 cups white sugar
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour three 7x3 inch loaf pans.
2. In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, water and sugar until well blended. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger. Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just blended. Pour into the prepared pans.
3. Bake for about 50 minutes in the preheated oven. Loaves are done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. 

Yummy! Perfect for a cold, rainy day!

Week #16 - Swamp Soup

I saw this recipe on BudgetBytes.com, a low cost cooking blog. BudgetBytes blogger Beth (say that 3 times fast!) raved about it so much that I decided I had to try it. She billed it as tomato soup and grilled cheese all in one. Sounded good to me!

INGREDIENTS		COST
2 Tbsp	olive oil	$0.22
3 stalks	celery	$0.46
4 med	carrots	$0.31
1 med	onion	$0.38
3 cloves	garlic	$0.21
1 Tbsp	dried basil	$0.15
1 Tbsp	dried oregano	$0.15
1 (28 oz) can	tomato sauce	$1.42
45 oz.	diced tomatoes	$2.01
1.5 tsp	chicken or vegetable bouillon	$0.13
1.5 cups	water	$0.00
1 (10 oz.) pkg	frozen spinach	$0.96
6 oz.	swiss cheese	$1.53
TOTAL		$7.93

STEP 1: Clean and chop the onion, carrot, celery and garlic. Cook in a large pot with olive oil over medium heat until the vegetables have softened (about 5 minutes). Stir in the basil and oregano and cook for one more minute.

STEP 2: Pour in the cans of diced tomatoes (do not drain) and tomato sauce. For the diced tomatoes you can either use 3 (15 oz.) cans or 1 (28 oz.) can plus 1 (15 oz.) can. The latter will probably be less expensive.

STEP 3: Add 1.5 cups chicken broth or 1.5 cups water plus 1.5 tsp chicken bouillon. To make this a vegetarian dish, simply substitute the chicken broth or bouillon with a vegetable variety. Add the brick of frozen spinach. Allow the mixture to heat through, stirring occasionally to break up the spinach as it melts (about 10 minutes).

STEP 4: Once the soup is completely heated through, dice the swiss cheese. Reduce the heat to low or turn the heat off completely. Drop in the swiss cheese and stir it in. The cheese will melt and become gooey but remain in clumps. If the heat is left on high, the cheese will melt too much and dissolve in. Alternatively, you can add the cheese to each bowl of soup after serving.

This soup was great! I followed the recipe pretty much exactly. The only thing that wasn't good about it was my fault because I didn't cook the vegetables long enough and the carrots were still kind of crunchy. The globs of cheese were really good. I will definitely make this soup again.

Rating 4.5/5

Week #12 - Ken's Quick Chili

This week my husband is making chili, so this is going to be my soup for the week. This is his own recipe and he just throws things together. I was in charge of getting ingredients, and I decided to try ground bison just to try something different. Here is the recipe according to him. (BTW: Ken is our 2010 Neighborhood Chili Cook-off winner! Oh yeah!)

Ingredients:
2 tbsp olive oil
2 medium onions, chopped
2 jalepenos, de-veined and finely chopped
2 peppers, chopped (red and orange)
6 cloves of garlic, pressed
1 can of kidney beans
1 can of tri-blend beans
1 small can of tomato paste
1 large can of crushed tomatoes
1 large can of tomato puree
2 pounds of ground bison meat
6 oz water
cayenne pepper, cumin, oregano, salt, black pepper, white pepper, dark Mexican chili powder to taste

Method:
1. Saute the peppers, onion, and garlic in olive oil until soft.
2. Add the bison meat and cook through.
3. Add tomato paste and a round of seasoning.
4. Add the tomato puree, crushed tomatoes, and beans, and season again.
5. Add water.
6. Simmer until the beans are tender.
7. The longer you cook the better, and keep adding a bit more water as you cook longer. It will be better the second day!

Rating 4.5/5

Week #8 - Red Pepper Soup

Hey guys! This is my first time doing a pureed soup. I don't know what made me think of searching for red pepper soup, but I found a recipe on allrecipes that looked pretty good. I was kind of afraid of the whole puree aspect, but I don't know why. It was easy. I pretty much followed this recipe exactly.

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 4 red bell peppers, chopped
• 1 onion, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 24 fluid ounces chicken broth
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper

Directions

1. Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Place the red bell pepper, onion and garlic in the saucepan and saute for 5 to 10 minutes, or until tender. 
2. Pour in the chicken broth, stirring well, reduce heat to low and simmer for 30 minutes. Transfer to a blender and puree until smooth.
3. Run the soup through a strainer and return the liquid to the saucepan over medium low heat. Stir in the heavy cream and the ground black pepper and allow to heat through, about 5 to 10 minutes. 

Those weird-looking white-ish things are the parmesan shavings.

It came out great! I think I was extra impressed because, since the soup was smooth, it seemed more "professional" to me rather than homemade. I served it with some sour cream and parmesan cheese shavings, neither of which would float on top for a pretty picture, and some french bread. I would definitely make this soup again on a cold fall evening.

Rating: 4/5

Beef Stroganoff

Beef stroganoff is one of my favorite recipes to make. It's really easy and tastes great. I'm not sure where I learned how to make this but I have been making it for years. I approximated amounts, but I just throw stuff in.

Ingredients:
1 pound ground beef
1/2 cup chopped onions
2-3 cups egg noodles
1-1.5 cups reduced fat sour cream (depends how creamy you want it)
1/4 cup ketchup
1 tbsp mustard
2 small cans mushrooms
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Prepare egg noodles according to package directions.
2. Saute onions and brown ground beef together.
3. When beef is done, add sour cream, ketchup, mustard, and mushrooms. Mix it up and let heat through.
4. Add salt and pepper to taste.
5. Serve over noodles or mix together with noodles.

Rating: 4/5

Week #6 (Guest Blogger!) - Chicken Vegetable Quinoa Soup

My friend Erica is a great cook, and she came to visit this week. I asked her to be my first guest blogger!
-------------------

I think I love soup almost as much as Michaela.  Actually, my love is more for the cooking of the soup than the eating of it.  I've been cooking soup in Michaela's kitchen for years, so when I came in to town for a visit, it was necessary that I partake in her "52 Soups" adventure.

Unlike Michaela, I don't usually follow a recipe.  I'm a "throw stuff in to a pot and see what it tastes like" kind of cook.  So here's what I ended up with:

Chicken Vegetable Quinoa soup

Ingredients:
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp butter
1 medium white onion, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
3 ribs celery, diced
3/4 cup baby carrots (or 1 large/2 small regular carrots), diced
2 large cloves garlic, minced
2 cans diced fire-roasted tomatoes
2 cans black beans, drained and lightly rinsed
1 1/2 cups shredded chicken breasts
3 cups chicken broth
1-2 cups water
1 tsp chipotle chili powder
1/2 cup quinoa
salt and pepper to taste
Sour cream

Directions:
Over medium heat, heat butter and oil in soup pot
Add onion, pepper, celery, and carrot
Season with a pinch of salt a a few good grinds of pepper
Saute until vegetables soften

Add garlic and cook until you can smell it (30-45 seconds)
Add chicken, tomatoes, beans, broth, chili powder, and salt/pepper to taste
Add quinoa and 1 cup of water
Bring pot to a boil over medium heat

Cover and let boil for 12 minutes
If soup seems thick, add additional water
Remove from heat and let set for 10-15 minutes until quinoa is tender but not mushy
Serve with sour cream (for added creaminess and/or heat reduction if you used too much chili powder)

Notes:
- A request to make the soup "hearty" made me add chicken to my recipe.  The soup could easily be made vegetarian, or vegan, by excluding the chicken breasts and substituting vegetable broth for the chicken broth (exclude butter for vegan version)
- Play around with vegetables - many veggies can be substituted or added to this recipe, so use what you like or what you have on hand
- Lentils would be a good substitution for Quinoa in this - just reduce the water and add about 5-10 minutes to your cooking time

As one of my sporadic soup creations, I was greatly impressed with this.  The chipotle chili powder added a smokey spice which was greatly paired with the creamy sour cream.  I might play around with substituting different grains, though.  I love quinoa, but it was almost hidden by the chunky vegetables, so something more "present" like lentils or barley might work better.

-------------------------------

Thanks, Erica! This soup was great. We served it with Pampered Chef beer bread. It was a great meal.

Rating 4.5/5

Week #5 - French Onion Soup

I love French onion soup! This seemed like a fairly easy soup to make and I always get it at restaurants, so I tried it. Most recipes I saw seemed to be pretty similar, so I went with this one from the Food Network.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 4 onions, sliced
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 fresh thyme sprigs
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 cup red wine, about 1/2 bottle
• 3 heaping tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 quarts beef broth
• 1 baguette, sliced
• 1/2 pound grated Gruyere

The only thing I already had at home was the wine, flower, and dried herbs (instead of fresh ones). I used half a bottle of Gnarley Head red zin that I had in the fridge, and got swiss and mozzarella cheese instead of Gruyere.

Directions

Melt the stick of butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onions, garlic, bay leaves, thyme, and salt and pepper and cook until the onions are very soft and caramelized, about 25 minutes. 

Add the wine, bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer until the wine has evaporated and the onions are dry, about 5 minutes. Discard the bay leaves and thyme sprigs (I used dried herbs and just left them in). 

Dust the onions with the flour and give them a stir. Turn the heat down to medium low so the flour doesn't burn, and cook for 10 minutes to cook out the raw flour taste. Now add the beef broth, bring the soup back to a simmer, and cook for 10 minutes. Season, to taste, with salt and pepper.

When you're ready to eat, preheat the broiler. Arrange the baguette slices on a baking sheet in a single layer. Sprinkle the slices with the Gruyere (I used swiss and mozarella) and broil until bubbly and golden brown, 3 to 5 minutes. Ladle the soup in bowls and float several of the Gruyere croutons on top.
Alternative method: Ladle the soup into bowls, top each with 2 slices of bread and top with cheese. Put the bowls into the oven to toast the bread and melt the cheese.

I did the method where you put the bread and the cheese in the soup and then put it in the oven (400 degrees for 10 minutes), but it did not toast the bread. Next time I will toast the bread in the oven on a cookie sheet, and then put them in the soup with the cheese and put it back in the oven to melt the cheese.

This soup tasted great. I think I should have cooked the onions longer, I only cooked them about 15 or 20 minutes. I was very pleased with this soup.

Rating 4.5/5

Week #3 - Bean & Bacon Soup with Corn Bread

So, why am I turning on my stove and oven when it's 79 degrees in my house with air conditioning? I guess I'm just crazy. But I had to make my soup for the week, and I haven't been brave enough to consider cold soups, so I had to make do with the heat. This week, my husband requested bean and bacon soup. I looked online, and most soups want you to use dry beans which you have to soak. I decided I was too impatient for that, so I googled "fast bean and bacon soup." I came up with this recipe from RealSimple.com:

Ingredients

• 4 strips bacon
• 1 large carrot, chopped (about 1 cup)
• 2 stalks celery, chopped (about 1 cup)
• 1 medium onion, chopped (about 1 cup)
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• 2 15 1/2-ounce cans great Northern beans, drained
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• kosher salt and black pepper

Directions

1. In a large saucepan over medium heat, cook the bacon until crisp, 6 to 8 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate. Let cool, then break into pieces.
2. Return the saucepan to medium heat, add the carrot to the pan drippings, and cook for 5 minutes.
3. Add the celery, onion, and garlic, stirring well and cooking for 3 minutes more.
4. Add the beans and 2 cups water. Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce heat to low. Let simmer for 10 minutes.
5. Uncover and, with a potato masher or large slotted spoon, partially mash the bean mixture until it thickens slightly.
6. Stir in the parsley, 1 ¼ teaspoons salt, ½ teaspoon pepper, and bacon

 

 I had all the ingredients already except carrots, bacon, and beans. I decided extra bacon is always good, so I added 2 more strips. I also added an extra carrot. I didn't drain the beans, in fact I used the cans to add the water so all the bean-y liquid would get into the soup. I also added an extra cup of water and a chicken bullion cube.

 I think this soup came out great. It didn't need any extra salt or pepper. In fact, some of the reviews said that it was too salty, but I thought it was just right. I'm glad I added the extra bacon. I think next time I would double this recipe because it didn't yield as much as other soups I have made.

Rating: 4.5/5


As you can see in the picture, I decided to try my hand at homemade corn bread because I thought it would go well with the soup. I had all the ingredients for the recipe I found on allrecipes.com:

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups cornmeal
• 2 1/2 cups milk
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2/3 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil (I used olive oil)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). In a small bowl, combine cornmeal and milk; let stand for 5 minutes. Grease a 9x13 inch baking pan.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Mix in the cornmeal mixture, eggs and oil until smooth. Pour batter into prepared pan.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center of the cornbread comes out clean.

I made this pretty much exactly the way the recipe said to. It took 30 minutes to bake perfectly. I was impressed with the way it stayed together and wasn't too crumbly, and it was pleasantly moist for corn bread. It was a tad bland; I wish there was either a little more sugar or a little more salt, but it was right in between. I would make this again and probably try a bit more sugar. That could ruin the baking chemistry, but I would try it anyway.

Rating: 4/5

Rocky Road Fudge

So, this is not a soup, nor is it a food that particularly goes with soup. So what's it doing on this blog? I am going to start blogging about other new and exciting foods that I (try to) make at home.  I found the recipe for Rocky Road Fudge on Budget Bytes, a blog about making good, low cost food. Here is the recipe from Budget Bytes:

Total Recipe cost: $7.28
Servings Per Recipe: 16
Cost per serving: $0.46
Prep time: 5 min. Cook time: 5 min. Cool Time: 1-3 hrs Total: 10 min. plus cooling

INGREDIENTS		COST
3 cups (18 oz.)	chocolate chips	$4.02
1 (14 oz.) can	sweetened condensed milk	$1.77
1/4 tsp	salt	$0.02
1 cup	unsalted peanuts	$0.84
1.5 cups	mini marshmallows	$0.63
TOTAL		$7.28

STEP 1: Prepare an 8x8 baking dish by lining with foil or parchment paper. If you have a hard time lining the sides with parchment, just cut a piece to fit the bottom and then coat the sides with non-stick spray.

STEP 2: In a large pot, combine the chocolate chips, sweetened condensed milk, and salt. Turn the heat on to the lowest setting and melt the ingredients together while continuously stirring. Use a heavy bottomed pot and stir constantly to prevent scorching. Heat and stir until the mixture is completely smooth.

STEP 3: Stir in the peanuts and marshmallows. The peanuts and marshmallows will make the temperature of the fudge drop quickly so it may look slightly gritty. Just continue to stir over low heat until it smoothes out again.

STEP 4: Spread the mixture out into the prepared baking dish and refrigerate until it is completely cold. Remove the fudge from the dish and cut into 16 squares with a sharp knife. Enjoy!

This dessert was super easy to make and came out great. It tastes really good, and it's pretty rich, which means I will only eat a little at a time. I used lightly salted peanuts instead of unsalted because I thought the salt would be a nice contrast to the chocolate, and I was right. Definitely give this one a try.

Rating: 4.5/5

Homemade Pretzels

I made some homemade pretzels from a mix I got at an Amish store near French Lick, IN. The company is Dutch Country Soft Pretzels. They are so yummy with my left-over red potato soup!

Week #1 - Red Potato Soup

Hey everybody! Thanks for visiting my new blog. Like it says above, I love soup, all different kinds of soup. However, I rarely make soup because the few times I have tried it has not gone too well. Either I don't season well, or I burn it. But today I was making a soup recipe that I found on allrecipes.com because I had some leftover red potatoes, and decided that I needed to start trying to cook more soups. And thus, this blog was born! Hopefully I can really keep it up.

So this week's soup was Red Potato Soup. Like I said, I had some red potatoes left over that I wanted to use, so I found this recipe on allrecipes.com. I had all the ingredients for this soup except for chicken broth and seasoning salt.

Ingredients:

8 red potatoes, cubed 1 onion, chopped 1 (49.5 fluid ounce) can chicken broth 1/2 cup margarine 2 tablespoons celery seed

1 teaspoon garlic powder 1 teaspoon ground black pepper 1 teaspoon onion powder 1 1/2 teaspoons seasoning salt 8 cups milk

I bought chicken broth, but I forgot seasoning salt, and since I am not a great cook, I looked up what I could substitute for it on garvick.com. I ended up throwing in some paprika, dry mustard, and oregano instead.  Directions: 1. In a large saucepan over high heat combine the potatoes, onion, broth, butter or margarine, celery seed, garlic powder, ground black pepper, onion powder and seasoning salt. 2. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium low. Simmer for about 15 minutes, or until potatoes are tender. Add the milk, heat through and serve. This soup was easy to make, and pretty fast. I learned that I should have taken some of the reviewers advice and made a roux because the soup was waterier than I would have liked. I did decrease the milk, as was suggested in the reviews. I also added some celery since I had some left over, and I figured what soup couldn't use celery? I thought it tasted really good even though it was a bit watery. I added some shredded cheddar cheese on top, and had some French bread to go with it. I would definitely make this soup again with some of the above changes.  Rating: 4/5 stars