Disaster Chef: Kale Soup aka Zuppa Tuscana (Olive Garden copycat recipe)

I've made this dish a handful of times. It's my husband's favorite, and a popular meal I've made for my family. It's an Olive Garden knockoff, though I add a few things and change it up a bit (I'm incapable of following a recipe exactly). It can be eaten as a side, but we always use it for the main course as it is very filling and complete all on its own.

I have used different sites for the recipe every time I've made it, but this time I grabbed this one off Pinterest, from My Kitchen Joys.

I cut the recipe in half, since I was using potatoes and kale from my own garden, and I only had a bit of each. Here's the halved version, which serves 4 as a main course.

2 cups potatoes, sliced 1/4" thick.

In the pot.

3/4 cup onion chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 cups chicken broth (I didn't have this, so I used 1 c. water, then added an extra cup milk at the end)

2 cups water

2 slices of bacon, cooked and crumbled (I never add this and never miss it)

1/2 Lb. Italian sausage

1 packed cup kale, chopped

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream (I used whole milk, plus the extra cup to make up for the chicken broth, which made it plenty creamy)

*I also add a can of beans, usually red kidney but this time white kidney, as my husband and son like those better.

Place onions, potatoes, chicken broth, water, garlic in pot and cook on medium heat until potatoes are done. Meanwhile, brown sausage and crumble. Add sausage and kale. Add salt and pepper to taste. Simmer for another 10 minutes. Turn to low heat, then add cream. Heat through and serve. 

Every recipe for this soup that I've used calls for putting kale in at the end, with the cream, but I don't like my kale very tough. It's still plenty chewy after cooking 10 minutes. This soup is a big hit with everyone who has tried it.

Recipe: 4 spoons of goodness
Product: 5 spoons

Disaster Chef: Cream of Mushroom Soup (project pinterest)

My inspiration for this soup was actually a beef stroganoff recipe that called for 2 cans of cream of mushroom soup. I would probably have to be very desperate to use canned soup, so I thought I'd find a good recipe and save some for the stroganoff. This recipe, from Pinterest, caught my eye. But let me just warn, there was NOT a lot of it! Not even enough for the stroganoff...and I'm not talking about leftovers here. I mean, it made about 2.5 cups total. So, I'd recommend doubling the recipe, especially if you want to have some leftover for cooking or if you just like soup. And trust me, you're going to want to have a bowl of this, and probably go back for seconds.

Here's my version, adapted from the original recipe, which can be found over at Veg Recipes of India.

• 1 16oz. package baby portabella mushrooms, sliced
• 1 small to medium onion, finely chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1 bay leaf
• a pinch of grated nutmeg
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup full fat milk at room temperature
• 6 tbsp half&half or cream
• 1 tbsp whole wheat flour or all purpose flour
• 2 tbsp butter
• ½ tsp dried parsley
• freshly crushed black pepper as required
• salt as required
• a few chopped parsley or coriander leaves for garnishing (I didn't have these, but they make the pictures so much prettier on the original website!)

  

  I made this in my cast iron, where I make everything!

Here are her Instructions

This step is not pretty. It looks pretty disgusting right now, actually.

1. melt the butter in a sauce pan.
2. add the bay leaf and saute till fragrant - about 4-5 seconds.
3. add the chopped onions and garlic.
4. saute till they soften and become translucent.
5. add the sliced or chopped mushrooms and saute till the mushrooms start to release water.
6. saute till all the water dries up and the mushrooms are a light brown (this took quite a while, and the onions got a bit mushy by then, so I might not cook them as long next time).
7. add the flour and saute for 3-4 minutes stirring often.
8. then add freshly crushed black pepper and saute for half a minute.
9. add water first followed by milk.
10. stir well and season with salt.
11. on a low flame let the soup come to gentle simmer
12. the soup would also begin to thicken.
13. simmer for about 4-5 minutes.
14. then add the cream and parsley.
15. simmer for 2-3 minutes more stirring often.
16. lastly sprinkle nutmeg powder and stir.
17. switch off the stove top and pour the soup in individual serving bowls.
18. serve the cream of mushroom soup steaming hot garnished with parsley or coriander.

Disaster Chef: Baked French Toast (Project Pinterest)

This was a recipe I tried out during Christmas break when my family was here. My son isn't the biggest fan of French toast because he says it's too soggy, but he loved this. The recipe can be found here, on Parade.

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients

• 1 (12½ oz) loaf of favorite bread (such as challah), cut into 1-inch-thick slices
• 3 cup whole milk
• 7 large eggs
• ½ cup light-brown sugar
• ¼ cup real maple syrup, plus more for serving
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• ¼ tsp nutmeg

Directions

1. Generously butter a 13 x 9–inch casserole. Arrange bread slices in dish, staggering in rows.
2. In large bowl, beat together milk, eggs, brown sugar, maple syrup, vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Pour over bread and press down, making sure slices absorb liquid. Cover with foil.
3. Refrigerate overnight.
4. Preheat oven to 350°F. Remove foil and bake casserole 55 minutes to 1 hour, until puffy and golden. Serve with more maple syrup, if desired. 

I used whole wheat bread and spread it out on two dishes because when I layered the bread, it wasn't under the milk. We only had 2 cups of milk, so I used that and a half cup of half & half. Our chickens definitely don't lay large eggs, so ours were small. I used only 2 tbsp. of sugar and syrup, and 1 tbsp. of cinnamon and 1/2 tsp nutmeg. I baked until the bread got puffy and took it out. It got nice and crisp on top, and everyone liked it, even my son, since it was not at all soggy.

Disaster Chef: Sweet Potato Casserole (Project Pinterest)

This casserole was all over Pinterest around Thanksgiving, and we had lots of sweet potatoes, so inevitably I found it a perfect match. Apparently so did my sisters--they both made it for their own Thanksgiving dinners.

I was making this for my husband's family, and since you just never know about internet recipes, I made a test run the day before. I made the gluten-free recipe that day, using our own sweet potatoes and xylitol instead of sugar. It turned out a little weird on the top--the xylitol didn't melt and it looked kind of floury on the top instead of all gooey and melty how it looks in the picture on Frugal Freebies blog. Here is their recipe. For her gluten-free version, check out her blog.

Conventional Version
4 Cups Mashed Sweet Potatoes ($2.00)
3/4 cup white sugar ($.40)-->I used only 1/2
1/4 cup melted butter (I used salted) ($.25)
1/3 cup milk ($.25)
2 beaten eggs ($.30)
1 tsp vanilla ($.10)

 topping
1/4 cup cold butter, cut into small pieces ($.25)
1/2 cup flour ($.25)
3/4 cup packed brown sugar ($.40)
1 Cup Pecans ($3.00)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Combine the mashed sweet potatoes, sugar, melted butter, eggs, milk and vanilla in a medium bowl and mix with a spoon and pour into an 11 x 7 x 1.5 casserole dish (I never grease it- but I doubt to would hurt if you wanted to). Set aside.
Cut cold butter into flour and brown sugar until it has the consistency of small peas. Add in pecans and stir to combine. This has a crumble topping type consistency.
Sprinkle the topping onto the sweet potato mixture and bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes. Cool for few minutes and then serve.
Serves 8-10 depending on portion.

I made it the regular way on Thanksgiving at the in-laws. I cut the sugar some because the sweet potatoes were already so sweet. But otherwise I followed the recipe. Again, the top never melted or got gooey how it looks in the picture. It was more crumbly than gooey. It was sort of ugly, honestly, and not that many people ate it, though the people who did gave me a few compliments.

I really like sweet potato casserole, and this was my first shot at it. I will try again next year, but with a different recipe.

Recipe: 2.5 out of 5 spoons

Prep & instructions: good, though it does not look like the picture

Foodie Friday: Disaster Chef: Baked Potato Soup #projectpinterest

So this week I have a semi-success story for Project Pinterest to inspire any other aspiring cooks out there. This is a really easy recipe! It's only 4 ingredients, although as the original blog post says, it's really all about the toppings. It's a good starting point, but very simple and plain if you don't add some toppings (ie, boring).

Here's the recipe:
Soup Ingredients:
1 garlic clove bulb, with the top cut off
6 – 8 large baking potatoes, uncooked
3 – 4 cups chicken broth

1 Tbsp. fresh thyme, chopped

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Tightly wrap the garlic bulb in foil. Rinse and pierce potatoes 9-12 times with a fork. Put the garlic and potatoes in the oven right on the rack.
Bake the garlic for 45 minutes then remove from oven. Allow the potatoes another 15 – 20 minutes in the oven. To tell if the potatoes are done they should be tender when you pierce them with a fork. Let the garlic and potatoes cool for at least 30 minutes. (I didn't do the whole letting them cool thing, but they turned out fine).
Peel garlic shell back to pull out cooked garlic pulp. Peel the potatoes with hands. Place the garlic pulp in a large saucepan, and using a potato masher mash the garlic. Next, add the potatoes to the saucepan and start mashing the potatoes and garlic together. Next, stir in the broth and fresh thyme until it is combined well. Cook the soup over medium heat until hot. Serve and add toppings of your choice.

I ended up only using 4 potatoes the first night, and a whole quart of broth because that's what I had in the fridge (and I may not have been paying as much attention to the recipe as I should have). So it was really soupy the first night. The next day I baked 4 more potatoes and added them, and it was nice and chunky and thick like the pictures showed, and much better all around. I threw some cheese and sour cream and olives on it, too. If you have some green onions, chives, bacon, or even salsa, that would probably be tasty, too.

The garlic was a bit tricky to get peeled, as it was pulpy mush and sticky, and the skins stuck to my fingers horribly. Also, peeling baked potatoes isn't as easy as it sounds. It is definitely time-consuming to scrape out the skins well, unless you want to leave a big portion of the potato stuck to the skins. So even though this recipe is simple and easy, it is not fast.

That said, it was very tasty both as a brothy soup and as a thick stew the next day...at least it was after adding a bunch of toppings! I will definitely be adding this to my list of standbys. It's worth repeating.

Disaster Chef: Cheesy Zucchini Cups: #foodiefriday #projectpinterest

So, I had this post all planned out, only to realize all my pics from this recipe were erased in my phone crash. I decided to do the post anyway. The pictures weren't that great, anyway!

Sometimes you have some ingredients, and you want to use them, but you don't know what to make... This was one of those times. I had some zucchini from my mom's garden, and I didn't want to waste it. And that's pretty much all I had, at least the only fresh vegetables I had for a side dish. So of course I headed straight to Pinterest and found this recipe.

It sounded simple and easy and good. So I started to make it. Here's the recipe and directions.

Ingredients
1 cup zucchini grated
1 egg
1/4 cups yellow onion diced
1/4 cups cheese (cheddar or Parmesan work the best)
1/4 cups bread crumbs (I used Italian Style)
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, finely chopped
Salt and Pepper

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 400F. Spray a mini-muffin tin with non-stick spray, set aside.
2. Grate the zucchini and then place in a dish towel to squeeze out the excess water- like when using frozen spinach; if you skip this part, the middle of the zucchini tots will be really soggy while the outside gets crispy and no one wants that.
3. In a bowl combine, the egg, onion, cheese, bread crumbs, zucchini, parsley, salt and pepper.
4. Using a spoon or a cookie scoop, fill the muffin cups to the top. Bake for 15-18 minutes, or until the top is browned and set.

I grated a huge zucchini, which took forever. Then I squeezed all the liquid out by hand, since I didn't have any paper towels. With clean hands, just pick up handfuls of the stuff and squeeze until the liquid drips out. I did the same with an onion. Then I went to get out the rest of the ingredients...only to find that my husband had no eggs and no bread to make bread crumbs. So again I will advise...when cooking, get out all the ingredients before you begin!

I had already grated the vegetables, and I wasn't about to throw them out. Oh, yeah, did I also mention that my husband doesn't have muffin tins? I kind of made the 'batter' into blobs and formed thin cookies out of them, hoping they'd cook all the way through, even in the centers. Did they turn out well,  you ask? Well...in a word...No. They did not. They didn't hold together well without the egg, and the centers never got really nice and cooked. They were a little crunchy, and not in the good way.
In the undercooked-onions way.

I might actually try these again, because they were SUCH a disaster that I'd like to try them again. The recipe sounded good. I just need to go shopping before I try them again!

Disaster Chef: Parmesan Tomatoes (side dish) Project Pinterest #5

Here is another recipe I got off Pinterest. We've had a ton of tomatoes from the garden and didn't manage to get them all canned. So, I was looking for something to do with them. This recipe from Eating Well looked tasty, and it was, if a little plain.

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients

• 4 tomatoes, halved horizontally
• 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• Freshly ground pepper, to taste
• 4 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil

 Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 450° F.
2. Place tomatoes cut-side up on a baking sheet. Top with Parmesan, oregano, salt and pepper. Drizzle with oil and bake until the tomatoes are tender, about 15 minutes.

I followed this recipe almost exactly, aside from the fact that I don't measure anything except when baking. I probably used about twice the amount of oregano and olive oil.

One thing I will say for this recipe is that it was sinfully easy. Even I pulled them off without a hitch. But I cooked mine for 15 minutes, and they didn't look anywhere near as cooked as in the picture. I cooked them another 10 and they still weren't as cooked as the picture shows. So allow extra cooking time. Honestly, these weren't my favorites. They would go well with something like steak and potatoes. But eating them alone, or on my veggie plate, they were definitely lacking. I'd recommend as a side, not a snack.