Zuppa Tosc-Awesome

This soup is loosely based on a loose adaptation of the Olive Garden dish, Zuppa Toscana. I originally ordered this soup for the same reason as everyone else--you're getting the soup, salad, and breadsticks lunch and discover the soups all sound like tosh...except...oh, what's this...there's sausage in this one. I fiddled with it a bit and so now it isn't quite Toscana...it's Tosc-Awesome.

Note: I omitted the cream usually called for in Zuppa Toscana so I could pretend I was being a bit healthy--if you don't like brothy soups, you'll probably want to add some cream to this. Do so after the boiling is done--you just want to warm it through. Maybe a pint or so for this amount?

Zuppa Tosc-Awesome -- Yields about 1.5-2 gallons
2 32oz cartons of chicken broth (which you will then fill again with water)
2 lbs ground sausage, such as Bob Evans Savory Sage
5 medium-largish potatoes, cubed (skins on is nice)
3 medium-largish potatoes, sliced and diced finely
2 pinches red pepper flake
2 bay leaves
Granulated garlic
Granulated onion
1 small bunch kale, ribbed and chopped thinly
1 bag frozen peas
1 onion, sliced
5-6 cloves of garlic, minced
1 carrot, diced

1. Prepare the onion and garlic. If no one has ever shown you the proper way to do this, there's lot of mucking about. Here's what I like to do: cut the root and stem ends off first. Next, make a shallow slice down the side so you can peel off the paper and funky outer layer. Cut the onion in half from root to stem end. Now the exciting part: turn the half flat side down, and start slicing down the onion so that the little half-rings fall apart on their own. Isn't that great? Anyway, do that. Cut the ends off the garlic, squash it with the flat of your knife, and de-paper it. Mince finely.

2. Cut up the potatoes. Most of them should be in nice chunks--but since we're not adding cream as in the original version of this soup, you should (basically) mince some of the potatoes so they fall apart completely in the soup to add body.

3. Brown the sausage in a large pot with a bit of water to keep it from burning. I wouldn't add more fat to it at this point...the sausage can be pretty greasy already. After it's started browning, toss in the onion and garlic and stir.

4. Pour in the chicken broth and water. Add the bay leaves and red pepper flake; stir in granulated garlic, onion, salt, and pepper to taste. Side note: Be cautious with the red pepper--honestly, 2 pinches is more than enough to give a nice heat to several gallons of soup. Yes. Several Gallons. If you don't like spicy put in one or two PIECES instead of pinches.

5. After the broth is boiling, toss in the potatoes and carrots. Boil until your root veggies are cooked through. This can be as quick or long as you like--the longer you simmer, the better the flavor.

6. Add the peas at some point--you don't want to boil them too long, or they'll get mushy.

7. Cook the kale. You should de-rib each leaf and cut it into strips. Don't get terribly lazy, or you'll have huge leaves of kale in your soup...wet, messy, and hard to eat! By the way, if you're not sure whether you like kale or not...steam it in a separate pot. That way if you don't like it, you can...I don't know, freeze it or something and make it into artichoke-spinach dip...sans spinach.

8. After the broth tastes good to you--dish it out and top with a bit of kale. Enjoy!

Kickin Ham Dinner

Easter Greetings! The weather has started getting nicer...this means it is grilling season again. We took the traditional Easter Ham Dinner and put a spin on it this year. Instead of waiting for hours, baking a ham in the oven, we had our boneless ham sliced into 2"-thick slabs and grilled them in about half an hour. This resulted in a tender meat with a delicious charred flavor...not to mention the glazes. I was inspired by a few ham glaze recipes in The New Best Recipe...as you'll see, all sound amazing, and I can promise that all taste amazing. The consensus was that all the glazes tasted pretty much the same...though I swear I picked out the Coke/lime glaze. Moving on to the sides...again, New Best Recipe inspired my take on scalloped potatoes (though of course I added more cheese than "necessary")...and same inspiratory source for the green bean dish (something a bit different...if you like lemon pepper, you'll like this). The whole meal cohered rather nicely, being that there were a few repeated ingredients. Read on for deliciousness.


Grilled Ham Slices
7 lb boneless ham, sliced into 2"-thick slabs (this yielded about 7 slices)
Glaze of choice

1. Prepare the glaze(s).
2. Preheat grill, on high, for about five minutes to get the grate sizzling.
3. Use a spoon (forget the brush, this glaze will be too thick) to slather one side of each ham slice with glaze. Plop that side down on the grill. Glaze the top and sides. Shut the grill lid.
4. Return in about 7-10 minutes. Flip the slices and glaze the new top side. Repeat until a thermometer inserted into the middle of each slice reads 145 (about a half hour to forty five minutes depending on the heat of the grill and the thickness of the slabs).

Glazes!!!

Coke-Lime Glaze
1.5c brown sugar
1 c Coke
Juice from 2 limes (about 1/4c)
1T or so of lime zest (about half a lime's worth)

Pineapple-Ginger-Red Pepper Glaze
1.5c brown sugar
Juice drained off from one can of chunk pineapple (about 3/4c)
1 small piece candied ginger, minced (or 1/2t ginger powder, or 1t fresh sliced ginger)
1/8t (that's a pinch, people) red pepper flake

Orange-Cinnamon-Star Anise Glaze
1.5c brown sugar
Juice from 2 navel oranges (about 1 c)
1T or so of orange zest (about half an orange's worth)
1 stick of cinnamon (or 1t ground)
4 star anise pods

Mix ingredients in a small saucepan. Heat over high heat, constantly stirring, for about ten minutes. You will get to a point where the entire mixture bubbles up--when this happens, remove from heat and stir until you see the surface of the liquid again. Put back over the heat and stir until the bubbles get up high again...repeat. You'll want to prepare this at least a half hour before you're ready to grill the ham. The glaze will thicken up upon sitting, but when you stop after ten minutes or so, it will only seem syrupy. It will get more like molasses after sitting for a half hour or so. As you can imagine, you can make whatever glaze you want. Just start with 1.5c of brown sugar and add a cup or so of liquid and you're in business.

Scalloped KA Potatoes

8 medium potatoes, unskinned, sliced into 1/8"-thick slices
1 c chicken broth (I recommend Progresso--it is the most natural)
1 c cream (remember, 2 c in a pint)
2 medium onions, quartered and sliced
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
1 c shredded cheddar cheese
1 c shredded parmesan cheese

Here's a tip for cutting onions...use the natural growth pattern of the onion to your advantage. After you skin the onion, cut it in half from root tip to leaf tip end. Cut each of those halves in half again, in the same direction. Now, slice perpendicular to those lines. You will end up with a whole bunch of sliced onion that will fall apart along the growth rings, with less work for you. Yay!

After you slice the potato, par-boil them in water for about ten minutes, until they're pretty soft.

1. In a large pot, saute the garlic and onion with a bit of oil or butter.
2. Add the par-cooked potato slices, broth, and cream.
3. Cover and simmer for about 10 minutes.
4. Dump into a greased lasagna pan and top with cheese.
5. Pop in preheated 425 degree oven for about 15 minutes.

Lemon-Pepper Green Bean Dish
2 bags french cut green beans
1c chicken broth
2T corn starch
1T lemon juice
1t black pepper
3 garlic cloves, minced
Bread crumb, for garnish

1. First up...if your green beans are frozen, thaw them. I put them right in the pot and put it on medium heat til they're thawed.
2. Toss in the garlic and saute a bit with some oil.
3. Mix in the chicken broth and corn starch. Stir and up the heat to high...keep stirring...in about 7 minutes or so it'll thicken up.
4. Stir in the pepper.
5. Turn off heat. Stir in lemon juice. Let stand for ten minutes or so. When you serve, top with bread crumbs.

That's it! Enjoy!

And the next morning, take some leftover ham and dice it...mix with some of the leftover potatoes...fry it up with an egg and a bit of oil. Top with cheese, of course. Yum!