Busy, busy, busy!

I haven't forgotten about the blog, I promise. We've just been very busy searching for a new car which means we haven't been cooking anything special.

We were in New Jersey for the long weekend visiting Jon's brother James, his wife, Miranda, and our adorable niece, Britta. Miranda made an Asian pork shoulder in the crock pot one night, it was delicious! I will definitely be making it myself in the near future.   In the meantime, I'll share the recipe with you and I'll be back soon!  Click Here ---> Asian Pork Shoulder from Real Simple Magazine  The only change she made is she cooked the pork shoulder whole for most of the time then shredded it with two forks for the last couple of hours, this kept the meat juicy and tender but allowed the flavors to meld into the meat at the end.

Sausage, Leek, and Spinach Quiche with a Potato Crust

Don't as me how it happened, but I ended up with 3 dozen eggs in the house last week (sometimes I wonder if I'm losing my mind!) I figured the best way to start using them is to make a quiche or frittata. I found this recipe on some random website and just made a few little changes.  Here is my version...

1 1/2 lbs Russet potatoes

1/4 cup grated Parmesan

1/4 cup flour

2 tablespoon butter, divided

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 small (or 1 large) leek, white and light green parts thinly sliced

about 5oz sausage (I used 1/2 spicy 1/2 sweet)

2 cups baby spinach

4oz mozzarella

5 eggs

1/4 cup milk

S&P

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Butter the bottom, sides, and rim of a 9-inch pie dish with 1 Tbs butter. Peel and grate the potatoes (easiest in a food processor.) Mix the potatoes with the flour, Parmesan, S&P. Press the mixture into the pie dish, pushing up the sides. Put some thin strips of foil over the top edges of the potato crust to prevent over-browning and bake for 30 minutes. 

While the crust bakes, heat 1 Tbs butter and 1 Tbs olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add leeks and saute for about 10 minutes, until very soft. Remove the sausage from it's casing and add to the pan, crumbling into small pieces. cook for 6 or 7 minutes, until cooked through. Turn down to low and add spinach and let it wilt down for a few more minutes. 

In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs and milk and season with S&P. 

When the potato crust is done, remove from the oven and remove the foil.  Lower the temperature to 350 degrees. Spread the sausage mixture over the bottom of the crust. Pour the eggs over the top. Break up the mozzarella into small chunks and sprinkle over the top.

Bake until the edges are golden brown and the egg is set, 25-35 minutes. (The recipe said to bake 25 minutes but I found my quiche took almost 35 minutes.) Let the quiche sit for about 10 minutes (to firm up) before slicing.

Chicken Soup - Carrabba's Style

This soup is sort of like Mama Mandola's Spicy Chicken Soup at Carrabba's. Jon found a clone recipe online and based his soup off of it, making a few changes. The soup called to boil a 5-pound chicken to make your own broth. While we do make our own broth quite often, we like using a chicken that was roasted for dinner the night before. The first time we made this soup, we didn't have a roasted chicken, so we improvised with chicken broth, water, and a couple of big split chicken breasts. I'm going to share the recipe how we made it, but you could certainly boil your own roasted chicken for your own broth.  We're boiling a chicken tonight to make this soup again tomorrow, I'll let you know if it makes a big difference making your own broth. 

Also, the soup at Carrabba's is SUPER spicy by using a whole lot of black pepper. I'm not into that much pepper and spice, so Jon just added his own pepper to his individual bowl. If you want it spicy, add at least twice as much pepper as you would think, and keep a box of tissues close by!

 

 

6 cups of chicken broth

about 2 cups water

2 large bone-in split-chicken breasts

5 celery ribs

4 medium carrots, peeled

1 large yellow onion

2 medium potatoes, peeled

1 14 oz can Italian plum tomatoes, with juice

2 garlic cloves, pressed/minced

1/2 cup fresh Italian parsley

S&P

Small, stubby pasta (we used Ditalini)

Boil the chicken in the broth until it's falling off the bone, 1 1/2 to 2 hours. 

Meanwhile, dice celery, carrots, onion and potatoes into 1/4-inch pieces. Chop tomatoes, reserving all juices.

When the chicken is done, remove from the broth (and strain if necessary.) Add water to the broth; the amount of water will depend on how much water boiled off and the flavor. You can always add more, as needed while cooking too.

 

Add the vegetables, potatoes, tomatoes and the juices, garlic, parsley, and S&P to the broth. Bring to a boil then turn down to low and simmer until all the veggies are cooked through and soft, about an hour. 

While simmering the veggies, remove the chicken meat from the bones, discard the bones and shred the meat. Also, cook the pasta, drain, and toss with some olive oil to avoid sticking. 

Once the veggies are soft, mash them in the pot with the back of a spoon (we just used a potato masher.) Add the chicken and check for seasoning.

We kept the pasta separate so it doesn't absorb all of the broth and get water-logged. Just stir some pasta into your soup and add pepper to taste.