OG style Italian sausage soup

It's a bit early for soup, but Scott's having TMJ issues, so anything he doesn't have to chew much makes him happy these days. I think OG spares you some of the preconceptions you might have when you see, "Olive Garden." Always nice to have a soup to hit the spot. We even used Turkey Sausage on special, and didn't notice a real difference.

Slow Cooker OG style Italian Sausage & Kale Soup

20 MINUTES PREP; 5 HOURS COOKING;  SERVES 6

INGREDIENTS

• 1 pound Italian sausage
• 3 russet potatoes, sliced into wedges then halved
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 large white onion, finely chopped
• 4 cups chicken broth
• 2 cups kale or Swiss chard, rinsed and chopped
• 1 cup milk
• 2 ounce cream cheese
• Salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions

Brown and chunk sausage. Fill crockpot with sausage, potatoes, onion, garlic and broth. Cook low for 8 hours, or high 4. Finish with kale, milk and cream for about 30 minutes to desired texture.

Recipe adapted from Somewhat Simple

Pumpkin Streusel Muffins

This was a recipe request from my friends mom.

I'm including both the original recipe, and what I actually made here. I think it's funny when people don't trust their pumpkin recipes and add superfluous chocolate that overwhelms the pumpkin flavor.

These muffins are really sticky, so I strongly recommend cupcake wrappers.

Pumpkin Streusel Muffins

Topping:

1/3 cup sugar

1/4 cup flour

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

3 Tbsp soft butter 

Sift Dry ingredients together:

3 1/3 cups flour

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 Tbsp pumpkin pie spice

2 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

Mix wet ingredients separately:

1/2 cup butter melted

1/2 cup olive oil

2 cups winter squash puree

4 eggs (or if you ran out of eggs 4 Tbsp flax meal and 3/4 cup water set in the fridge for 15 minutes)

Fold wet ingredients into dry until just moistened.

Use a #20 scoop / disher to fill muffin tins.

Sprinkle topping on top of muffins.

Bake 350 F 20 minutes, or 40 minutes for jumbo size. 

Easily makes 2 dozen regular sized muffins.

Original Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffin recipe for reference

Topping:

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup flour

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

3-4 Tbsp butter 

Sift Dry ingredients together:

3 1/3 cups flour

2 cups sugar

2 Tbsp pumpkin pie spice

2 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

2 cups chocolate chips

Mix wet ingredients separately:

1 cup butter melted

2 cups pumpkin puree

4 eggs

Crockpot Lasagna

One of Scott's favorite foods is lasagna. One time we made it in the crockpot, and it was tasty. This was a loose interpretation of Alton Brown's crockpot lasagna.

From: July 2, 2014

Steak on the grill

Scott and I have been wanting a grill for a long time. Right after we moved in to our new place, we were making a few back-and-forth moving trips, and passed a moving sale. On a whim, we decided to stop and check it out. They had a full gas grill for only $75. Score! So we bought it.

One night we made steak on the grill. Served with green beans (from my parent's garden), salad, and homemade wheat rolls. Yum. Scott is a grill master.

From: November 9, 2014

Apple onion soup

We eat a lot of soup around here, especially when it's cold. This one was definitely an experiment and it wasn't bad. Apple onion soup.

From: October 28, 2014

Pesto Tortellini

It's been awhile, blogosphere. But don't worry, Scott and I have still been taking pictures of our food, and plan to update this blog. So prepare for a bunch of posts. And I've decided to start posting recipes too. Mostly for my (our) sake(s), so that I don't have to rely on internet links going bad. Anyway, here goes.

We made some pesto then mixed it together with a standard cream sauce (made using a standard roux and milk). Served over cheese tortellini with grilled squash and salad.

On a side note, I now have this old iPhone, and the camera isn't very good...the coloring on the pictures is all wrong, usually. Trust me, the food didn't look that yellow.

From: October 13, 2014

Happy Fourth!

I really hate cooking in the summer. Especially turning on the oven, but the stove heats you up just as bad (and then I have to pay for AC to cool back down again). We don't have a BBQ grill, so I took the Foreman grill outside and cooked up some chicken in the shade. I seasoned with a home made rib rub. When I remember what I put in it, I'll have to post the recipe.

Rather than turning the oven on for potato wedges, I thought I'd pressure cooker them and run them on the Foreman as well. They ran too long in the pressure cooker (dumb timer didn't start), so I seasoned with Italian dressing and pan fried them instead. At least the oven stayed cool...