Tuscan White Bean Soup

There is nothing like a good bowl of hot, steamy soup after a long stressful week. Minimal effort and delicious results. Soup also has a ton of wonderful bonuses. It's cheap, even if you go organic with it. It is easy to make large quantities and it freezes exceptionally well! It's filling if accompanied with a bit of homemade bread. And best of all, it's absolutely delicious and packed with so many vitamins and other nutrients.

Lemon Chicken Parmesan

A delicious twist on a  classic Italian dish. What more can I say?

Cacio e Pepe (Spaghetti with Pecorino and Pepper)

Any Italian meal that takes less than 15 minutes from start to finish is wonderful in my book. Plus there is nothing better than a delicious and super easy dinner in the middle of the week. This recipe popped up on an email from America's Test Kitchen and since I had all the ingredients on hand, I thought it would make a delicious dinner.

Slow Cooker Italian Roast

Today has been a lazy Sunday. The weather can't make up it's mind yet rather it is still summer or if it is turning into fall. Yesterday was a gorgeous, fall-like day. Today it's summer. High temperatures and high humidity. A perfect day to be curled up on the couch with a book, inside my nice air conditioned living room.

My extreme laziness even extended into the kitchen where dinner was assembled and put into my slow cooker around noon and eaten at 6. There is nothing nicer to accompany a lazy Sunday than a good, old-fashioned Sunday Roast Beef dinner.

Three Cheese Tortellini with Fresh Tomato Sauce

Summer is slowly drawing to a close. The sun is beginning to set just a bit earlier. The days are becoming shorter. It is time to make the most of these last few glorious days of bright sunshine and beautiful weather.

It is also time to make the best of the last few garden goodies. I spent last weekend raiding my parents' garden to get all the beautiful, juicy red tomatoes I could find. The result was over 10 gallons on tomato puree waiting patiently in the freezer for me to process into ketchup, spaghetti sauce, and chili sauce.

The few less than perfectly red tomatoes have been waiting patiently on my counter, getting redder each day, slowly reaching perfection.

Today I needed some comfort food. The good Italian kind that blends all the traditional Italian herbs, garlic, and tomatoes. And of course cheese. Italian food is never complete without some aged parmesan or some mozzarella.

An Italian Feast

I am part Italian. Therefore I like to feed people. I feel like my role in life is to feed people.

It makes boys happy. It makes coworkers happy. It makes me happy.

Buddy, The Cake Boss, is Italian. Now he is also The Kitchen Boss on TLC.

I watched a couple episodes. Buddy obviously does not count calories.

I am in love.

Real Italian food. Real butter. Real fat on the meat. All the stuff that makes food good. It's like seeing heaven.

I searched through his recipes on TLC's website.

I scribbled things down.

I really scribbled. On sticky notes. On Super Sticky Post-It Notes to be exact. These are harder to misplace. They stick around longer. (Lame pun, I know. Oh well.)

I have an addiction to sticky notes. They are handy, they don't take up a lot of space. I can fit them beside the touch pad on my laptop to write on them.

I have ambitions to organize my recipes. In a neat manner. One that doesn't use sticky notes.

I write down 3 or 4 recipes a week, sometimes more. I stuff everything into a folder if its good. If its not, I throw it out. I don't feel bad throwing out a small scrap of paper. I feel more wasteful trashing a whole sheet of paper with a recipe on it. So there are a lot of sticky notes in my folder. All of them are stuck together.

Yesterday, I went hunting for a brownie recipe. I made them almost a year ago. I looked through over 600 sticky notes to find the recipe. Oh my.

I'm working on organizing tomorrow. The end. I am not doing anything until at least 50 recipes are typed into my computer. And printed. And stuck into a binder. Into categories. So I can find them again. Easily.

But I digress.

My dinner, all recipes modified from Buddy Valastro, The Kitchen Boss.

Delicious!

For starters: Orzo Pasta Salad

Main Course: Sausage & Cheese Stuffed Chicken topped with Tomato Vinaigrette

Side Dish: Stuffed Eggplant

Dessert: Fried Zeppole

Sausage and Cheese Stuffed Chicken Breasts

Another wonderful recipe modified from Buddy the Kitchen (& Cake) Boss. The main course of my dinner tonight.

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, with a pocket cut into them
1 Hot Italian Sausage Link, casing removed
2 Tbs Onion, minced
1 Clove Garlic, minced
2 Tbs Olive Oil
2 Tbs Seasoned Breadcrumbs
1/2 C Fresh Mozzarella Cheese,  diced
2 Tomatoes (canned), diced
2 Tbs Fresh Basil, minced
1/2 C White Wine

In a small saute pan, over medium heat, add oil, sausage, onion, and garlic. Break up the sausage as you cook until small crumbles are formed. Cook until sausage is fully cooked and slightly browned.

Mix in breadcrumbs and allow to cool.

Preheat oven to 375.

Add in tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil. Mix well. Divide into two portions.

Stuff mixture into the chicken, closing with toothpicks.

Place the breasts into a baking dish. Pour in wine. Place in the oven. Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until fully cooked.

Top with Tomato Vinaigrette.

 Serve with  Orzo Salad and Stuffed Eggplant. For dessert Fried Zeppole.

Fried Zeppole

Wonderful, fried Italian donut-hole style cookies. Recipe compliments of The Kitchen Boss.

Fried Zeppole
15 oz (about 3 1/4 C) All-Purpose Flour
3/4 tsp Dry Active Yeast
9 oz tepid water
1 Tbs Sugar
Vegetable Shortening
1/2 C Powdered Sugar

Heat the 9oz of water to 110 degrees. Dissolve 1 Tbs sugar in the water. Add the yeast and allow it to "bloom."

When the yeast mixture is frothy, use a wooden spoon and combine the yeast with the flour. Stir until the mixture comes together.

Using the dough hook of a stand mixture, continue mixing on medium low speed for approximately 4 minutes. Check the dough, if it's too dry add a bit more water, if it's too moist/sticky add a bit more flour.

Place the dough onto a lightly floured surface and continue to knead until the dough is smooth and elastic, approximately 7 minutes.

Form the dough into a ball and place in a lightly greased bowl, cover and allow to rise for about an hour.

Turn the dough out onto a light floured surface, press it down to deflate. Form the dough back into a tight ball and allow to rise for another hour.

Heat the vegetable shortening in a deep fryer or cast iron skillet to 375 degrees.

Break off 1-inch round pieces of dough and drop carefully into the oil. Fry until the float and are lightly browned.

Drain on a paper towel for 1-2 minutes.

Place fried dough into a paper bag and add about 1/2 C powdered sugar. Shake to coat evenly.

Serve warm.

Stuffed Eggplant

Part of my Italian Feast I created.

It's important to pick a small, young eggplant for this dish.

Stuffed Eggplant
1 Small Eggplant
3 Whole Tomatoes (canned), diced
3/4 C Fresh Mozzarella, diced
2 Tbs Parsley, chopped
1 Clove Garlic, minced/pressed
1/4 C Parmesan Cheese, grated
1 Egg, beaten

Preheat oven to 375.

Cut eggplant lengthwise. Use a spoon to hollow out the inside of the eggplant. Reserve three-fourth of the innards.


Chop the innards of the eggplant.

In a medium bowl combine chopped eggplant, tomatoes, mozzarella, parsley, garlic, parmesan cheese, and egg. Stir until well incorporated.

Stuff the mixture into the hollowed out eggplants. The mixture should be mounded slightly.

Place in a baking dish. Bake at 375 for 20-30 minutes or until the eggplants are cooked and the filling is hot.

Garnish with parsley.

Italian Orzo Pasta Salad

I have a new addiction. The Kitchen Boss.

Buddy Valastro makes gorgeous cakes. I can't do that. I could eat them though.

Now he shows people how to make awesome Italian food. His recipes are to die for. I of course modify them for my personal tastes. I get hungry just watching him make his food.

He doesn't believe in leaving out the fattening parts of recipes. Tons of butter, fat marbled meats, sugar, and all that other stuff that makes food taste good. I LOVE it.

The other day Buddy made Orzo Pasta Salad. Today, I made Orzo Pasta Salad.

2 C Cooked Orzo Pasta (1 C uncooked)
1/4 C Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 Tbs Sun Dried Tomatoes in Oil
1 Tbs Fresh Basil, minced
1 tsp Fresh Rosemary, minced
1/2 C Grape Tomatoes, halved
1/4 C Pine Nuts, Toasted
1/2 C Kalamata Olives, pitted and sliced
1/4 C Red Wine Vinegar

Cook the orzo according to the package directions. Drain and toss immediately with olive oil, sun dried tomatoes, basil, and rosemary. Allow to cool.

Toss pasta with grape tomatoes, pine nuts, olives, and red wine vinegar. Allow to set at least 10 minutes. Serve chilled.

Serves 2-3. This will keep in the fridge for up to 4 days.

I fell in love with this salad the second I tasted it, I hope you do to!