Zuppa Toscana

Bill and I both like the "Zuppa Toscana" at Olive Garden. My mom used to make something similar, sans greenery. So I found this Copykat recipe online, and decided to give it a try. I substituted the kale in favor of spinach. I've never cared for the kale in that soup.

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4 spicy Italian sausage links
3 red potatoes, chunked
1/2 onion, diced
1 tsp. minced garlic
2 c. frozen chopped spinach
6 c. chicken broth
1/2 c. whipping cream

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Place sausage links onto a sheet pan and bake for 25 minutes, or until done. Use a paper towel to soak up extra grease. Cut in half length-wise, then cut at an angle into 1/2 inch slices.

Place onions in a large saucepan and cook over medium heat until onions are almost clear. Add garlic to the onions and cook an additional 1-minute. Add chicken broth, spinach, and potatoes, simmer 15 minutes.

Add sausage and cream. Simmer 4 minutes and serve with crusty french bread.

Shepherd's Pie

The last time I attempted Shepherd's Pie, it was a dismal failure lost in a sea of Campbells cream of mushroom soup. Bland. Colorless. Awful.

So I found a recipe on Allrecipes.com that didn't use cream of anything at all.

Problem: I didn't print it out. I just wrote down the ingredients to pick up at the grocery store. Then when I came home, I couldn't remember which recipe I'd been looking at. (If you look at the original, you'll see it's "Shepherds Pie VI.") So, I kinda did it from memory. I did alright, but I was skimpy with the beef broth and it came out a tad too dry for my husband's taste. But I liked it. I love that there's a whole layer of bright orange carrots!

Also, I used potato flakes instead of real potatoes! We bought a big ol' box of them at Costco and...I use them when I can, because I'm not huge fan of potatoes. Unless they're sweet potatoes. Or french fries.

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1 lb carrots, chopped

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 onion, chopped

1 pound lean ground beef

1 cup frozen peas

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon ketchup

3/4 cup beef broth

1 packet Idaho potato flakes

1/4 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C.)

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add carrots and cook until tender but still firm, about 15 minutes. Drain, mash and set aside.

Heat oil in a large frying pan. Add onion and cook until clear. Add ground beef and cook until well browned. Pour off excess fat, then stir in flour and cook 1 minute. Add ketchup, beef broth and frozen peas. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes.

Spread the ground beef in an even layer on the bottom of a 2 quart casserole dish. Next, spread a layer of mashed carrots. Top with the mashed potato mixture and sprinkle with shredded cheese.

Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes, or until golden brown.

Beef Stroganoff

Bill's favorite dish that his mom makes is Beef Stroganoff. She serves it over mashed potatoes--which I'd never heard of before. But maybe that's because we usually just had the Hamburger Helper kind in my family. I've never made it from scratch before but last night was the night! I decided I would tackle the Stroganoff...and of course it was a mish-mash of two different recipes that I found at Allrecipes.com: Beef Stroganoff II and Beef Stroganoff III.

This is what I ended up with:

7 small red potatoes

1 lb beef chuck steak, sliced into 1/4" thick, 1 1/2" wide strips--approximately.
salt & pepper
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1/2 tbsp flour
1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup
1/2 can condensed beef broth
1/2 pkg mushrooms, sliced
1/3 c sour cream


Boil potatoes in salted water.

Season beef strips with salt & pepper. Brown in large skillet over medium-high heat. Remove from skillet to plate.

Add onions to skillet and cook until transparent.

Add flour, mushroom soup and beef broth. Bring to a boil. Return beef strips to skillet and simmer on reduced heat for 15 minutes.

Add mushrooms to skillet.
When potatoes are tender, drain them. Arrange on plates.

Add sour cream to skillet a few minutes before serving, and stir well to heat it through.

Smash the potatoes with a fork and top with beef mixture.