Tag Archives: sausage

Spicy Tuscan Soup

I love a good bowl of soup for dinner. It’s just so comforting and filling. I typically make the same soups over and over because they’re just so good, but I wanted to try something different and came across this recipe. It has kale in it, which I’m a big fan of. It’s a super food! It’s so good for you, and it tastes really good in this soup. Enjoy!!!kale

Spicy Tuscan Soup (original recipe at Tasty Kitchen)

• 1 pound pork sausage (I used Jimmy Dean)
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 2 slices bacon, diced (I used turkey bacon)
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 medium potatoes
• 1 quart chicken broth
• 1 bunch of kale, roughly chopped
• ½ cup heavy cream
• salt and pepper, to taste

Crumble sausage into a Dutch oven and heat over medium-high heat until cooked through. Drain off the grease and set the sausage aside.

Add onions and bacon into the Dutch oven. Reduce heat to medium and cook until onions are clear and the bacon has crisped up. Add minced garlic and cook for 1 minute.

Slice potatoes in half lengthwise and cut into smaller chunks. Add chicken broth and potatoes to the Dutch oven and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes until potatoes are almost done.

Add remaining ingredients, as well as the sausage and simmer for 5 more minutes. Then it’s time to eat up!

spicy tuscan soup*The original recipe calls for spicy breakfast sausage. However, to satisfy my kids’ needs, I used regular pork sausage and added red chili pepper flakes so I could control the spice level. If spice is not an issue, use the spicy breakfast sausage instead.

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Top O the Morning to Ya!

So this post has nothing to do with Irish food. I just wanted to say good morning in a less traditional way. So top O the morning to ya! This should give you a hint that I’m going to talk about breakfast. On Saturdays in my house, my family looks forward to a nice home cooked breakfast. It’s our one day that we are not rushed to go anywhere or do anything (except during softball season).

Look at those "farm" fresh eggs! Beautiful!

Look at those “farm” fresh eggs! Beautiful!

On a recent Friday when I was at the grocery store, I found some great looking chicken apple sausage links on manager’s special. Only about $2 and I figured I could use them to make some kind of yummy Saturday breakfast. We also have an abundance of brown eggs because we do the whole backyard chicken thing. So I get fresh eggs on a daily basis. With this in mind, I thought of hash!

This breakfast turned out to be so good, (and pretty looking too!) so I wanted to share it with you. Feel free to substitute the chicken apple sausage for any other sausage you’d like (or can find on sale). Make it your own, and use what you have!

Not done yet, just you wait!

Chicken Apple “Hash” w/ fried eggs (serves 4-5)

¾ pound chicken apple sausage, removed from casing

½ green bell pepper, chopped

¼ onion, chopped

1 garlic clove, minced

½ c. aged white cheddar, shredded

4 potatoes or 5 small potatoes, baked and cut into cubes

4-5 eggs, fried

Pepper to taste

Sliced green onions

Add sausage to a pan (cast iron works great), along with onion and bell pepper. Break up sausage and cook until no longer pink. Add garlic, cooked potatoes and pepper, stirring until combined. Add shredded cheese on top, put a lid on it and turn heat off. To fry eggs, spray your non stick skillet with cooking spray. I use canola oil cooking spray. Heat on medium heat. When skillet is ready, crack eggs, season with a little salt and pepper, and cook on one side for approximately 2 minutes, flip over, and cook for a couple more minutes. Cook the eggs for as long or as little as you prefer. It just depends on how much you like the yolk cooked. Scoop a generous portion of the hash onto a plate, top with the fried egg and sprinkle with the green onions.

*Use your microwave setting for baking potatoes for this recipe. It takes much less time than actually baking them in the oven, and I always do this for any type of breakfast potatoes.

Now THAT'S pretty!

Now THAT’S pretty!