Fall Break Recipes

The past four days have been Brian's Fall break. And they have been some of the most fun days of our marriage so far. Friday evening when Fall break officially began we made Toscana Soup. If you've been to Olive Garden then you've probably had this before. It is going in the rotation of regular recipes we liked it so much. 

Toscana Soup
1 lb. spicy Italian sausage 
1 qt. water

(2) 14.5 oz. cans (about 3 2/3 cups) chicken broth

2 lg. red potatoes - scrubbed clean, cubed

2 garlic cloves finely chopped

1 med. onion chopped
 
2 cups chopped kale 
1 cup half & half (called for heavy cream but I found what I had on hand did the trick)
salt and pepper - to taste

Kale is my new favorite ingredient

You can see in the background I served this with some steaks I got on the cheap and spinach. But we ate the soup again last night by itself and it was hearty enough to eat alone.

Simmer potatos, onions, water, garlic and broth until veggies are soft. Add cooked and crumbled sausage simmer for 10 minutes. Add kale and half & half and simmer until warm throughout. This would be yummy with garlic bread or biscuits. Add garlic and italian spices to melted butter in the butter-dipped buscuits below. 


Saturday was so relaxing. We slept late except for that brief moment when Brian's alarm went off at 5:30am (there was gnashing of teeth). I call it "Brian's alarm" because it's on his side of the bed. I'm unemployed so I don't really need one. My only job right now is to be Brian's helper which means that as long as I'm in the kitchen before he gets out of the shower, I'm good. So on second thought my alarm is the shower. 

I tried a new biscuit recipe for breakfast. We had these biscuits at small group last week and I got the recipe from our host. They are very, very simple and delicious (and bad for you). If I can make these, I trust anyone can. (The recipe I linked to is twice the size of what I make for Brian and me, so if you want a bigger batch you'll want to check that out.)

Easy Butter-dipped Biscuits
Ingredients:

1 cup self-rising flour*

1 T sugar

1/2 cup milk (I used 2%)

1/4 cup butter melted

all purpose flour

*As a substitute for each cup of self-rising flour, place 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a measuring cup. Add all-purpose flour to measure 1 cup. This is what I did since I don't buy self-rising flour.

Directions:

In a bowl, combine the self-rising flour, sugar and milk; mix well. Turn onto a floured surface; sprinkle with all-purpose flour. Pat dough to 1/2-in. thickness. With a sharp knife dipped in flour, cut into 3-in. x 2-in. pieces. Pour butter into an ungreased 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking pan. Dip one side of each piece into melted butter. Carefully turn to coat. Bake, uncovered, at 450 degrees F for 10 minutes or until golden brown.

I was so proud of them.

There was dispute on the allrecipes comment section about wether or not to cook the biscuits in the butter or to dip them in the butter. It seemed easy enough to me to just cut pads of butter on the cookie sheet and cook them in the butter but after doing that a couple times I found it's not the best idea. The excess butter burns and smokes in the high temp. So I would say dip 'em real good in a bowl and bake them on the sheet. These biscuits turned out great. I made them to go with chicken curry soup later that night too.

Chicken curry soup (crockpot style)

Ingredients:

1/2 head of cauliflower chopped

1 large sweet potato chopped

1 onion chopped

3 large chicken breasts cooked and thinly pulled or chopped

2 can chicken broth

1 cup apple cider

1 T EVOO

2 T curry powder

1 t cumin

1 T ginger (I used the spice since I didn't have fresh)

1 clove crushed and minced garlic

Curry turns everything bright yellow. If you can get over yellow cauliflower, you'll like this soup. I dumped all of these into my crockpot Saturday morning on low. I had a moment of despair when I realized that the apple cider I got for a bargin at Super Target was carmel apple flavored (it smelled and tasted gross). Mom always said that you get what you pay for. I bumped the crockpot up to high and added a little water and after an hour the flavors settled together and I could no longer smell the vile liquid that almost cost me my soup.

Dinner with Drew and Keano was so fun! They both study bio mechanical engineering so I enjoyed hearing them talk about how the body works, ergonomics, and some interesting tidbits about running barefoot.

Fall Break was made up of four of the most enjoyable days of our marriage so far. We ate good food and spent time with our friends and family. Brian's family came up to eat at Casa Bonita on Sunday and came back to our place so they could see our apartment. On Monday we went down to Colorado Springs to see them and visit with Brian's sister Christine who was in town on leave. Fall Break has left me eagerly awaiting the holiday season ahead.