Archive for April 2010
Zuppa Toscana
Posted on: April 27, 2010
Recipe: Zuppa Toscana (like the one at Olive Garden!)
Ingredients: Italian sausage, red pepper flakes, bacon, onion, garlic, chicken broth, potatoes, heavy cream, spinach
Taste: It tasted pretty close to the version at Olive Garden! Kinda spicy too. I’m not sure if the bacon was really necessary- I guess it adds some flavor but I don’t remember there being bacon in Olive Garden’s Zuppa Toscana. Overall the soup was a pain to make.
Texture: I have to experiment with how small or large to make the ingredients. The onions and garlic came out fine even though I didn’t cut them as small as the recipe said to. The potatoes were supposed to be “sliced thin”- whatever that means. I sliced them into thin little squares but I thought that was a weird shape for potato pieces. I tore up the spinach but it was still too large. And I removed the sausage from the casings and tried to break it up but I left a few chunks thinking they would crumble down- that didn’t happen. I like the sausage evenly crumbled so next time I’ll chop it a little more. It also says to add the spinach right before you serve, so I only added a little. I’ll add more as I reheat this soup over the next few weeks.
Portion: This recipe makes enough for “6”. Six people eating this as their main course, maybe. I had two bowls and there were probably at least 8 bowls left.
Overall Rating: 8/10
Fresh Mozzarella Pizza
Posted on: April 20, 2010
Fresh Mozzarella Pizza
Ingredients: Pillsbury thin-crust pizza dough, Barilla Tomato & Basil sauce, fresh sliced mozzarella cheese, basil
Toppings: Wow. Fresh mozzarella really makes a difference. It’s expensive, but it’s worth it. This pizza would have tasted great no matter what kind of sauce I put on it. It gets messy, of course, because when you take a bite, all the mozzarella tries to slide off (I have not mastered the art of “anchoring” the cheese and I’m not sure if it’s even possible). But I ate half of the pie because it was so good.
Dough: I really liked this dough compared to the regular Pillsbury pizza dough. It pre-cooks for 5 min before you add the toppings. It seemed fluffier and tasted better too.
Overall Rating: 9/10
Store-Bought Chicken Tikka Masala
Posted on: April 13, 2010
Chicken Tikka Masala (store-bought)
Ingredients: Jar of tikka masala sauce, chicken, green pepper, onion, basmati rice
Taste: I was worried that this would be too salty or spicy. In the end, it didn’t have much flavor at all. It didn’t taste like chicken tikka masala either, but that’s to be expected from a jarred sauce. I ended up eating it with some yogurt (raita) to make it more tasty.
Texture: Not much to say here as chicken, peppers and onions are pretty standard. I love the basmati rice though, for some reason the thin grains are more delicious to me than regular white rice!
Overall Rating: 6/10
Superman Candy Cake
Posted on: April 11, 2010
Superman Candy Cake
Ingredients: Funfetti cake (cake mix, water, oil, egg), whipped chocolate frosting, Whoppers (malt balls), M&M’s
Taste/Texture: Everyone knows Funfetti tastes awesome. The whipped chocolate frosting (Betty Crocker I think) was also very good. I don’t like malt balls but they were more for decoration.
Preparation: I got this idea from a website (http://www.coolest-birthday-cakes.com), and it wasn’t as hard to reproduce as I thought. I just copied the picture that the person had uploaded. I started out with a round cake (about 12″?) and cut it down to make a square. The hardest part was probably frosting the sides of the cake as they get crumbly. Oh and getting the malt balls to stick was making me nervous because they were hanging off the side of the cake at points. The candles also weren’t as sturdy as I would have liked but luckily we didn’t have any accidents while they were lit.
Overall Rating: 8/10
Potato Broccoli Cheddar Soup
Posted on: April 5, 2010
Recipe: Potato Broccoli Cheddar Soup
Ingredients: Potatoes, broccoli, onions, chicken broth, flour, milk, cheddar cheese (Bacos on top)
Taste: This soup is not too salty and I prefer it to eating something out of a can. I could do without the Bacos however (but have not tried the recipe with real bacon bits). I’m sure it’s great.
Texture: A little thin, maybe adding less milk would make it thicker. If I wasn’t in such a hurry to eat dinner, I would have cut the potatoes (and the onions) a little smaller. The potatoes probably would have cooked a little better that way too.
Portion: This recipe makes at least 4 servings of soup. I might add some more broccoli later to get some extra servings of vegetables.
Overall Rating: 7/10
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