Zuppa Tuscano

This original recipe comes from Epicurious.com, one of my favorite recipe sites.  I have made quite a few changes to the recipe, though, and the one I post here is my own version, but I'll try to mention some of the points at which I varied.

• 1lb mild ground Italian sausage
• ~2 medium potatoes cut into bite sized pieces
• ~1 medium onions, diced
• 2 large garlic cloves, minced
• 1 large bunch of kale, sliced with stems removed
• 32 oz. chicken stock
• 1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream

Cook the sausage, garlic, and onions in a stock pot over medium heat until sausage is done, then remove from pot and set aside. To juices in pot add chicken base and potatoes and simmer until potatoes are done, then add sausage mixture back in along with kale and cream, stir well and simmer until kale has reduced in size (at least four minutes, though longer is certainly fine).  Like most soups, this is excellent reheated, too.  Serves 4 - 5

Now - I believe the original recipe calls for the use of 5 sausages instead of ground sausage (cooked and then sliced before adding back in later), several slices of bacon, sliced potatoes instead of chunks, minced garlic instead of fresh, only 3 cups of kale, and only 2T of stock (the remaining liquid being water).

No pictures this time - maybe I'll come back and add them in later.  Enjoy!

Plan day 3/8

Our organic order this week is bringing: 2 avocados, grapes, 2 plums, 3 bananas, 2 oranges, baby Bok choy, broccoli, kale, potatoes, and tomatoes, celery.

Monday - leftover's from tonight's party! We don't usually have leftovers the night after we originally serve them, but this week that's what works best.

Tuesday - Zuppa Tuscano. This yummy soup uses the kale and potatoes from our organic order, the leftover onion from last week's order, Italian sausages (which happen to be on sale at Meijer this week!), uncured bacon, and bread left over from Sunday's dinner party.

Wednesday - Picnic dinner night!  Tonight we'll light a fire, spread a blanket, and lay out a bounty of snacky yet healthy foods for dinner.  Guacamole using the avocados and tomatoes from our order, leftover homemade hummus from Sunday night (both garlic and roasted red pepper), and the last of bread and cheese from Sunday night, plus the remaining broccoli, lightly steamed, but still finger food.  This is our vegetarian meal for the week.

Thursday - Stir fry, using the baby bok choy and broccoli from our order, tofu, mushrooms, water chestnuts, and baby corns that we'll pick up at the store. This is a second vegetarian meal for the week!

Friday - Leftover soup

Saturday - Leftover stir fry

Grocery list - this week's dinner grocery list is a small one!  Italian sausage (on sale at Meijer, so we'll buy two and freeze one), uncured bacon, water chestnuts, tofu, baby corns, ginger root, and mushrooms.  I made whole wheat bread and english muffins this weekend, and our dairy delivery is bringing milk and eggs, so the remainder of our list includes peanut butter for lunches, OJ, and a few other staples, like rice and natural soy sauce.

Happy week to you all!

Fries. Of the baked variety.

Since sweet potatoes came in our organic delivery this week we decided to try this delicious looking recipe we found on Sarah's Cucina Bella for oven baked sweet potato fries (disclaimer - I know nothing about this website, just did a search for sweet potato recipes and that one caught my eye).  The "fries" were good, although be forewarned that we've never had luck in actually crisping the wedges via oven baking (if you have a trick for doing this please let me know!), and we decided that next time we will be skipping the salt.  Otherwise, we think this one's a keeper.

Clean and peal the sweet potatoes, then cut them into fry-looking wedges no bigger than 1/2 inch on any side (the website specifically name 1 - 1.5lbs of sweet potatoes, though I don't think amount is too crucial here - I never weighed mine), then transfer wedges to a mixing bowl.  To wedges add 1/4 cup olive oil, 1/2t paprika, 1/4t cinnamon, 1/2t Kosher salt (give or take, depending on how many potatoes you use - I just eye-balled my measurements).  Toss to coat well, then spread out evenly on a cookie sheet and bake at 425 for ~30 minutes, turning every 10 minutes.  Serve hot and enjoy!

Sunday plan day - 3/1

Deliveries - our organic man comes on Tuesday and this week he is bringing lots of fruit, sweet potatoes, onions, mushrooms, broccoli, and celery.  Our milkman comes the same day and is bringing fresh milk and eggs. So for dinner this week...

Monday - chicken on the grill (we'll make two servings of this - grilled foods make great leftovers!), leftover homemade Italian bread, and steamed carrots (from our organic order last week).

Tuesday - eggplant pie (this automatically makes two meals worth and uses the celery and onion) and broccoli

Wednesday - leftover pork (from tonight's dinner, also done on the grill), oven baked sweet potato fries, and artichokes (Calvin's request)

Thursday - We are out for dinner at a birthday party

Friday - leftover chicken, parslied potatoes, and broccoli

Saturday - leftover eggplant pie

Sunday - we are hosting a party!  For dinner we will be serving hamburger stuffed acorn squash (uses mushrooms, onion, and celery), homemade bread, and a green veggie of Calvin's choosing, followed by fruit and coffee.

Grocery list - We had a lot of meat in our freezer from sales this past month, so this week's dinner grocery list will include:  flour (for bread), 3 artichokes, 5 acorn squashes, cheese (ched and mozz), and additional veggies and fruit for the party.  While we are there we will also look for good organic meats that might be on sale.

And that's our first week of March in a nutshell (or an acorn squash depending on how you look at it).

Needs some work

We love to try new things, and that obviously means we will sometimes run across a concoction that doesn't make the grade.  I can honestly say there has only been one dinner in all our years together that saw the inside of the disposal and was usurped by the pizza delivery guy - and that was many years ago - but there are lots of other recipes that have made their way into our never-again pile (aka the recycling bin), or our needs-some-work pile.  Today's recipe was of the latter category.  Why do I share it, then?  Because it's all a matter of taste, and because maybe you can do a better job!  If you have any ideas for alterations, let me know.

Spinach, beet, and goat cheese salad

First, scrub four medium beets and then boil them until tender (about 20-30 minutes), then drain, cool, and cut into bite sized pieces.  The hardest part is done.  Now heat about 1/2 cup EVOO and 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar in a pan.  Add spinach (eyeball it - however much you want to serve is good) and stir to coat with oil mixture until wilted.  Transfer to a serving dish and toss with beets, goat cheese, and candied walnuts (make these by toasting them in a hot pan, then adding maple syrup and stirring to coat, then allowing to cool on wax paper).  Serve warm.

Now, what didn't I like?  First, next time I'm going to skip the wilting step and serve this cold - I've seen it mentioned both ways.  Then, beets are sweet, and to me they were a little over-powering in this mixture (could be because they were in a very high ratio to the spinach), so I might tone it down a bit.  Also, I think next time I would try feta instead of goat cheese - the bitterness of the goat cheese was just a bit too much of a contrast for me.  The nuts are a good crunch, but an additional thought for next time might be crunchy pear.  We'll let you know if our second try is at all more successful.

Oh, and a good heads up would be "never make this while wearing white".  Just a thought.