Sonia and Long Dog Love

For the Canine Kitty Gift Exchange the Danes were gifted lots of fun things, see here!, including 2 "Long Dogs".

I don't know what it is about this one, but Sonia sure does love it! Baxter pulled the majority of the stuffing and squeakers out of the red one, but Sonia just snuggles this one all day long!

Italian Wedding Soup (Take 2!)

Last time I posted the recipe for Italian Wedding Soup, I had forgotten to take pictures. I made it again last night, with a few tweaks, but had my camera in hand and my husband to assist when my hands were covered in meatball mixture! You can find my tweaks and the original recipe here, in an easy-to-read form!

Carrots & Onions. Chop them SMALL so they cook faster (especially the carrots!). I made a large amount of soup so I cut up a whole large onion and 3 large carrots.

Make the meatballs! Use whatever you feel like adding - I like to mix it up a little each time for different flavors! Last night's had: 1.5lb ground beef, 1 egg, a few shakes of grated parm, a few shakes of italian breadcrumbs, salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and a few scallions I had in the fridge.

Mix it all up! Have someone else take a picture because your hands will be gross!

Make a LOT of small meatballs. I've been making them the size of  a quarter, but next time I'll try about half that size. It's time consuming but I like when they're really small! Set them aside, they'll cook in the soup.

Saute the onions and carrots in a smidge of olive oil until the onions are clear. Add chicken broth (I used 4 32oz containers this time), dried basil, spinach, salt, pepper, & LOTS of garlic (I pressed 6 cloves into this version). When the broth is boiling (or nearly there if you're impatient like me!) add the pasta and meatballs. 

The meatballs will float when they're done. I simmered mine for about 30 minutes - I like to do it a little longer than that, but we were hungry!

I had about a cup of Chardonnay left in the fridge that wasn't going to be used so I threw that in for good measure!

When it's all simmered, ladle it into bowls, LET IT COOL if you want to avoid the burnt roof of your mouth later, sprinkle some grated parm on top and ENJOY! (Also, the meatballs were not that pink in real life, they were a light shade of gray, definitely cooked!)

Always Remember Altitude!

On the last day of 2010, my husband and I decided to break out our new bread maker!

Since we're impatient and didn't read the entire manual, we missed the section on altering recipes when you're cooking at high altitudes (we live at just over 4,500ft).

What we got sure isn't pretty, but it still tastes pretty darn good!

Happy Holidays & a Tasty Salsa!

It's been a little quiet on the blog front, I've been enjoying the holidays with my family, but I have a few posts scheduled for the near future! Don't think I'm abandoning anything just yet!

My husband is trying out a new diet which means there will be fewer opportunities for me to try out fun new recipes! I'm not following it as strictly, so I'll still be throwing some fun food in there occasionally! When you have someone on a diet in the family, the struggle to make food fun and tasty becomes even harder! Since this diet is mainly about calorie intake, I have to be really careful about the things I'm making! 

Last night I wanted to make a "sauce" for the steak I was making so I mixed:

1/4 jar Pace chunky mild salsa

2 chopped plum tomatoes

1/2 jar chopped Kalamata olives with a good amount of their juice

2 tsp capers

2 tbsp water

dashes of salt, pepper, and Cavender's Greek seasoning

It was DELICOUS!!! It's very low calorie but packs a TON of flavor! I'm going to use the leftovers when I make chicken breasts tomorrow night!

Italian Wedding Soup

In our house, we do theme nights twice a week - Wednesday night is take out night and Sunday is "Soup Sunday".

For the last few weeks we've been working through the turkey soup I made at Thanksgiving. Thanks to a rotisserie chicken I picked up, we were able to make some homemade chicken broth and get about 3 weeks out of the turkey soup!

My favorite soup (besides lobster bisque) is Italian Wedding. The mixture of meatballs, pasta, spinach... it just doesn't get any better that that! I've never made it from scratch, but I found an awesome recipe over on Cinnamon Spice & Everything Nice. I tweaked it a little and am happy to say it was one of the best soups I've ever had! I would definitely add more broth since I had to add more the next day and lost some of the flavor, but this is a super easy soup for a cold winter night!

The original recipe can be found at the link above, the one below is with my tweaks!

Meatballs:
.75 lb ground beef
1 egg
2 handfuls Italian breadcrumbs
generous sprinklings of dried oregano, parsley, basil, salt, pepper

Mix all into small balls (the size of a quarter) and set aside - they will cook in the soup

Soup:
64 ounces chicken broth
1/2 lb ditalini pasta, uncooked
1 large onion, minced
2 carrots, mined
3 large cloves garlic, mashed with a garlic press (this is important to get the correct flavor)
2/3 c frozen spinach, thawed and slightly dried
dried basil
Olive oil

In the soup pot, saute the onions and carrots in a small amount of oil until soft and brown. At this point, you can put in the mashed garlic and saute a bit - I added mine directly to the soup and it was quite strong.

Add all broth to the pot and bring to a boil. Add pasta, meatballs, and spinach. Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer. Cover and simmer for about 30 minutes.

To serve, I added a small amount of shredded mozzarella cheese to each bowl, but grated Parmesan would work well too!

*I didn't get any pictures this time, but next time I'll be sure to document it!