Runaway October

Some of you may have had this soup before. It’s one of Olive Garden’s most pop­u­lar dishes.

This Thanks­giv­ing we had an Ital­ian theme and we brought this soup–it turned out quite yummy. It’s also quick and fairly inex­pen­sive. A great choice for chilly nights.

Unti­tled by Divine Domesticity

Zuppa Toscana (Olive Gar­den Copycat)

Serves: 6 to 8 people

Ingre­di­ents:

• 1 lb ground Ital­ian sausage (Your choice on Sweet, Mild or Hot)
• 1½ tsp crushed red peppers
• 1 large diced white onion
• 4 Tbsp bacon pieces (I used reg­u­lar bacon, though pre­cooked bacon or even Real Bacon Bits would work)
• 4 cloves of gar­lic, minced
• 10 cups water
• 4 cubes of chicken bouillon *
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 lb sliced Rus­set pota­toes, or about 3 large potatoes **
• ¼ of a bunch of kale

Direc­tions:

1. Sauté Ital­ian sausage and crushed red pep­per in a large pot. Drain excess fat, refrig­er­ate while you pre­pare other ingredients.
2. In the same pan, sauté bacon, onions and gar­lic over low-medium heat for approx­i­mately 15 min­utes or until the onions are soft.
3. Add chicken bouil­lon and water to the pot and heat until it starts to boil.
4. Add the sliced pota­toes and cook until soft, about half an hour.
5. Add the heavy cream and warm just until thor­oughly heated.
6. Stir in the sausage and the kale, let all heat through and serve. Delicious!

* Con­versely, you can omit the bouil­lon and the water and just use straight chicken broth.

** If you have left over baked pota­toes, you can just slice them and toss them in. Cook long enough to warm them through and move on to step 5.

Image by bookgrl

Enjoy!

Do you have any favorite soup recipes you’d like to share?

Good thing I proof­read or the title of this post would have been Mange Habanero Jam, and I don’t think that would sound nearly as appetizing.

I was recently reac­quainted with a local source of pro­duce, by my friend Niki. Lemme back up, actu­ally. My boys — Matt included — can go through fruit like it’s going out of  style. (As a mat­ter of fact, my 2 year old just snuck out of bed, came down stairs, snatched a tan­ger­ine and asked me to peel it. At 10:30pm.) On just about any given day, I have to start telling them no or I have to face the, uh, bio­log­i­cal after­math. Not fun. So one of my com­mon quests is to find the best deal for us on pro­duce. We’ve tried local co-ops, we’ve begrudg­ingly paid super high prices at health food stores, we’ve gone for the cheap­est pos­si­ble ala Wal­Fart. But it seems you always end up where you started.

Mango Jalapeño and Mango Habanero Jam

The Super­sti­tion Ranch Mar­ket on Apache Trail always has one good deal or another. Some of you non-Arizonians have to real­ize that not much grows here, so 4 pounds of pears for $1 is a smok­ing deal. Or Honey Crisp apples at $1/pound. Or a quart of black­ber­ries for $.69. We’re pretty much in heaven every time we go in. Some­times we go a lit­tle too crazy and we can’t eat our spoils fast enough. So Niki and I have turned to jam. But I’m not gonna lie. We’re kinda test­ing the waters to see if we’d make it with our own Farmer’s Mar­ket booth.

Mango Habanero Jam

We came across this recipe at 28 cooks and knew we had to try it. It was sim­ple, took only a few ingre­di­ents and sounded pos­i­tively deli­cious. The prep was sim­ple and there was hardly any work involved. Just blend it up, boil it and pour it into jars. It set up beau­ti­fully. 28 Cooks says it’s not as hot as you may think, but don’t be fooled. It has a kick, albeit a very deli­cious one. I’ve tried it on sharp ched­dar (yum), cot­tage cheese (yum), bread (yum) and a soft goat cheese spread (yum). It’ll make a deli­cious glaze for roasts. I’ve heard it’s deli­cious on grilled cheese sand­wiches? I’ll  have to try that too.

It very much reminds me of the spicysweet tamarind mex­i­can candy as well, and I can see myself eat­ing this straight out of the jar… Wait, Niki, my mom and I have all already done that…

Niki opted to use half jalapeños and half habaneros in her batch, hence the very green jam instead of orange like mine. It’s def­i­nitely more kid friendly that way, but still has a nice bit of spice and an amaz­ing taste.

So if it sounds like some­thing you’d like to try, drop on by and see Niki or myself, or just make it your­self! It’s easy! Head over to 28 Cooks. The recipe is right here.

Mango Jalapeño Jam