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sausage and kale soup
My good friend Erin Summerill, likes to drag me to the Olive Garden, or the OG, as she calls it. She seems to have a never ending supply of coupons to that place. Though I prefer other restaurants in town, like Pizzeria 712, I do like their soup with the sausage and kale, which they call “Zuppa Toscana.” Erin often makes it at home. I thought it was about time for another copycat recipe, don’t you?
If you haven’t guessed by now, the cookbook has me completely swamped. If I’m not up to my chin in flour and powdered sugar, I am either working on the manuscript for the book, or procrastinating with episodes of Downton Abbey. So to keep myself from only eating cookies and cake that I’m testing, I have started making soup at the beginning of the week, and then serving myself a bowl or two of it everyday.
Last week, I remembered Erin’s homemade version of the sausage and kale soup at the Olive Garden, and I made it myself.
coeur à la crème with balsamic strawberries
I’ve always wanted to make one of these. Isn’t it beautiful? I saw Martha Stewart make one once, and then Ina Garten made one on her show. When Gojee.com invited me to a virtual potluck, I knew I had to share one. A coeur à la crème (french for “cream heart”) is basically cream cheese, cream, and sugar, whipped together, placed in a cheese cloth inside a mold of some kind, and then left to drain overnight.
Once you have one of these coeur à la crème molds, or even a strainer, it’s one of the easiest, most decadent desserts you’ll make. There is no baking involved—just mixing and pouring. And it’s perfect for Valentine’s Day.
salted caramel squares
Have you tried those salted caramel squares at Starbucks yet? Whenever I get a Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate or a Caramel Apple Cider, I always buy a salted caramel square, too. They’re tiny little pieces of joy. And I love them.
It’s quite often that I want one, but I’m not near a Starbucks. I do live in Utah, after all.
One Sunday afternoon last fall, my next door neighbor gave us a jar of caramel. I knew that was the day I would figure out how to make those caramel squares. Though I’m no stranger to eating homemade caramel out of a jar with a spoon, I restrained myself to use the caramel for the greater good. I remembered a tiny bag of pretzels was still swimming around in one of my kids’ Halloween bags, so I bartered him for it, and got to work.
mascarpone passionfruit fool
Since today is my birthday, I thought it was only fitting that I should post an incredibly easy, incredibly indulgent recipe. Awhile back, when I saw my favorite grocery store was selling passionfruit, I bought up as many as I could afford. Just so I could have them. They’re usually quite tricky to find, and I didn’t want the opportunity of having some pass me by.
But have you ever bought something wonderful at the store, and then found yourself with stage fright—staring at it, without a clue how to make it shine? The first few fruits, I just cut open, and scooped out the juicy flesh and ate it with a spoon. I dare say, that is truly the best way to enjoy passionfruit. But what about all of you? I couldn’t just post my pictures of the empty, wrinkled skins, and say “Wish you had been here!”
candied orange peel
This is the perfect gift to make for someone when you’re a little short on cash. Since it’s made from sugar, and something you would normally throw away, it’s the ultimate way to recycle. Although they’re delicious plain, I dipped some of them in chocolate, and chopped others to sprinkle on top of chocolate lollipops. I was surprised how much I liked the way the candied peels tasted when paired with white chocolate.
The key to getting these to taste perfect is the number and amount of time you simmer and drain the peels, and the amount of pith you successfully slice off. It’s quite easy, and though I made mine with orange peels, you can also make them with grapefruit peels, lemons, or even Meyer lemons.
caramel filled hi hat cupcakes
Or pure sugar. Just call me Paula Deen. These things are so loaded with sugar that every well-intentioned parent is going to come after me with hate mail in the comments section. In fact, if you’re from Europe, don’t even make these. They’re way too sweet.
Though I had trouble eating these with all their sugar, I must have had at least four of them. There was just something so perfect about the way the warm caramel soaked through the cake, and the way it balanced with the dark chocolate in the crispy outer shell.
white pumpkin pie
When I bought this perfect white pumpkin with this lovely long stem, I had big dreams to carve it into a jack-o-lantern. But somehow, whenever I start to carve pumpkins, I lose interest, along with all desire to be creative. It’s sticky, the knives are difficult to wield, and I can never make them as beautiful as what I see in a Martha Stewart magazine.
After this one had narrowly escaped the carving knife, and was sitting on my counter for a couple of weeks, I decided it was time to do something with it. It seemed like a good idea to make it into a pie. Though the pumpkin puree itself was light—it looked exactly like applesauce—the color of the pie did not turn out as white as I had envisioned, once baked. It did look paler than a traditional pumpkin pie, though. And, since the white pumpkin is milder in flavor, I used slightly different spices than usual, and used cream as opposed to evaporated milk to make this pie a little more sophisticated.
chicken soup with heart-shaped carrots
Once, when I was in high school, my brother’s girlfriend got sick. He made a pot of chicken soup for her and cut the carrots into little butterflies. Later, she made him some soup as well, but cut the carrots into little hearts. I pretty much thought they were geniuses, and have copied their idea here and there over the years.
Today, my kids and I were all sick, and I knew we needed something a little extra special, so I made their chicken soup with the heart shaped carrots. Before you panic, there is a trick to making them. I’m going to blog à la Pioneer Woman for a minute, and show you how to do it, step by step.
pumpkin stuffed french toast
I had some mascarpone in the fridge, and I wanted to make something really special out of it. Something that would say fall. My mind got to work, and I decided something pumpkiny and breakfasty would be the right way to go. So I came up with this. The longer name for this is Almond-Crusted Pumpkin Mascarpone Stuffed French Toast. That’s what I announced when I made it last Saturday morning.
guacamole in 10 seconds
I recently received an email asking if I wanted to try a jar of Hot Cilantro Chutney from Bollywood Chutneys. When it came, I put it on the shelf, promising myself to get it out when I made something Indian. But then, on a Sunday afternoon, we had some avocados to use up, some corn chips, and a lime. I knew I’d be dreaming about guacamole into the night if I didn’t make some right then, but we were out of fresh cilantro. I then remembered the cilantro chutney, and within a couple of minutes, we had a perfect guacamole. Even my daughter liked it.
Jarred cilantro is now my new favorite invention. Whenever I buy cilantro fresh, I only use a sprig or two for one recipe, and then have to throw the rest away after it turns into liquid in my fridge. Then surely, a day later, I need to buy another bunch of it for another recipe. The brilliance of this chutney is that it even has hot chilies added in, so I don’t even need to try to find a wilted jalapeño at the bottom of the vegetable drawer.
