Olive Garden Soup

http://www.recipezaar.com/recipe/Olive-Garden-Copycat-Zuppa-Toscana-38298

This is a rip off of the potato soup served at Olive Garden. It is really great. I alter the original recipe:

1/2 lb hot or mild sausage (i use bulk)

6 medium potatoes

3 slices bacon, cooked and chopped

1 or 2 onions

2 clove garlic

1 qt chicken broth

2 cups water

1/2 tsp pepper (if not using hot sausage)

1 cup milk

4 cups kale or swiss chard leaves (or a bunch, I don't measure. Like a couple huge handfuls. whatever. lots though, and make sure it is in chunks and not chopped in small bits. i just tear it off the stalks and don't do much else.)

Very good! If your sausage has very little flavor you might opt for the full lb.

I cook the bacon and sausage at the beginning (in the soup pot) and keep it in a bowl until the instructions (in the link) say to add it later on. The bacon gets crumbled. I use bulk mild or hot pork sausage from the New York Style Sausage Company. David likes the hot sausage best.

Chicken Pot Pie

I have made this pot pie several times and it is really good.

The original recipe is here: http://www.recipezaar.com/recipe/Delicious-Chicken-Pot-Pie-10744

I use milk instead of half and half.

This made about 3 quarts because I added more vegetables. It barely fed 6 adults (3m/3f). It would have fed 4 more comfortably.

I used:

3 large chicken breasts

1 large onion

4 stalks celery

5 med carrots

4 med potatoes

fresh thyme

And then did what the recipe said. You could decrease the butter to make it lower fat. I usually use just a couple tablespoons of butter, and mostly milk instead of half and half. I do like to put in a bit of half and half or cream though, for the richness.

The crust I use for this comes from a comment by BothFex:

"Sift together 1 C. flour and 1 t. salt. Cut in 1/4 lb. cold butter or marg. till resembles coarse crumbs. Whisk together 1 egg yolk and 2 T. ice water add to flour mixture and mix till it just comes together. Let rest in fridge for 20 minutes then roll out and top pie."

I don't always let it rest, but it comes out flaky and good.

Update:

I always have the problem of the filling spilling out on top of the crust. When this happens, the crust is soggy and nasty. The solution I believe is to use pie dishes and fill them completely. Then put on a top crust only, and there is the rim for the crust to wrap around. When I make a huge pot pie in a 4 or 5 qt pot, the crust often falls too low and gets soggy. It has happened enough times that I need a different method. Alternatively, I could use a 2 or 3 quart glass casserole dish and fill it completely. Then put crust on top so that the edges seal. Sealing the edges is important so liquid can't get on top of the crust. Any leftover filling can be baked separately without crust. The most important things are to completely fill whatever container you use and then make sure the crust is large enough to extend beyond the edges and be sealed.

Another update:

I made this again but did it according to the measurements specified in the original recipe (except used less butter and milk instead of half and half). I used whole wheat flour in the pie, and half wheat half white in the crust recipe. It turned out really well. It was a touch too runny, so maybe a bit more flour would be good for thickening next time. This fit pretty well into a 2 quart glass dish, but was just shy of making it. The crust didn't drown this time, I think rolling it out large enough so it goes over the rim of the dish is key.

Another update- 5/1/2013:
Made again as in the last time, using original recipe in 2 qt glass dish, worked perfectly. Roll out dough large enough to go over the rim and fold under like a top crust on a regular pie. This time I used all white flour. The sauce was not too runny once it had time to cool slightly. I would recommend allowing 20-30 minutes of cooling time on the counter to avoid the initial runny sauce, it will still be really hot. It was a while ago that I made it last time though, and it might just be that white flour does better at thickening than whole wheat flour.

Pear Salad

David made a pear salad for an activity and it was really good. I looked in a couple cookbooks and we ended up putting these things in the salad:

pears

bacon

walnuts

feta

red onion

shallots

Spring mix lettuce

And then used a red wine vinaigrette as dressing. It was really good! The pears were just right and it was total luck that they had ripened well and were juicy and good. Pears often seem to be grainy to me, but these were great.

Baked Fajitas

My long time friend Jillian taught me to make these during undergrad. They are easy and good.

I think Jillian used portobello mushrooms instead of chicken, but I like to sub that for chicken and baby mushrooms.

Cooked chicken pieces (maybe 1 large chicken breast?)

1 bell pepper (I prefer a non-green type)

1/3 lb baby mushrooms (I think 10-15 mushrooms. I like crimini).

1 tsp cumin

4 medium flour tortillas

1 cup salsa

1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese

Slice bell pepper into strips and slice mushrooms. Saute until mushrooms are cooked. Add cumin. Divide mushroom/pepper mixture into 4 piles in pan. Roll up mixture with 1/4 of available chicken pieces in tortilla. Put tortilla in square glass casserole dish. 4 of these should fit perfectly. Pour salsa over rolled up tortillas and sprinkle cheese over top. Bake for 20 min at 350.

(If you don't want to saute the veges, just roll up everything raw (but the chicken still cooked) and bake for 30-40 minutes.

This is good for 2 people.

Notes: Sauteed onions would be good with this.

Trout

One block from my house is a great little grocery store called JJ&F. They have a full service deli, butcher and fish area as well. (Awesome sandwiches!)

I bought one trout that had been deboned and gutted, so when you open it up you have two fillets still in their skins ready to go. I've made trout many times. The herbs / spices vary, but some things always remain the same.

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Butter the bottom of a square casserole dish. Place trout skin down into dish. Mix 1 tbsp. butter and juice from one lemon and heat until butter is melted. Pout mixture over trout. Sprinkle salt and pepper on top.

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So, that is the part that is always the same. This time I also chopped up some fresh basil (maybe 1/4 cup?) and put that on top of the fish before pouring the lemon butter over the top.

Then, I bake at 400 for 15 minutes.

It is soooo good. Even DH likes it.