Is there anything better than good soup in January

 Call me crazy but almost always when dining at Olive Garden I order their Zuppa Toscana soup, salad and bread.  Something about the flavors of this warm bowl of goodness really appeals to me.  I love their salad too.

We always have soups on Christmas Eve.  The norm is chili and oyster stew.  This year we were having a few extra people.  Personally not liking oyster stew and liking chili okay ~~ I was more than happy to offer bringing another variety of soup this year.  For some reason Zuppa Toscana popped into my mind.

Do you know about the website copykat?  It has recipes that you might taste in restaurants and wish you could duplicate at home.  It had been quite some time since I thought to visit this site, but it did not let me down.  Within seconds I had at my fingertips the recipe I was looking for, complete with excellent reviews.

Joining Michael and so many good goods for Foodie Friday I am happy to share this recipe I found:




Olive Garden's Zuppa Toscana is a creamy potato soup. It is filled with Italian sausage and is hard to beat.
 

Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana

Yield: 8 servings.

*See note below
1 1/2 C. spicy sausage links — 12
2 medium potatoes, cut in half lengthwise, and then cut into 1/4″ slices
3/4 C. onions, diced
6 slices bacon
1 1/2 tsp. minced garlic
2 C. kale leaves, but in half, then sliced
2 T. chicken base
1 qt. water
1/3 C. heavy whipping cream

**See note below   1/2 teaspoon fennel seed


Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Place sausage links onto a sheet pan and bake for 25 minutes, or until done; cut in half length-wise, then cut at an angle into 1/2 inch slices.
Place onions and bacon in a large saucepan and cook over medium heat until onions are almost clear. Remove bacon and crumble. Add garlic to the onions and cook an additional 1-minute. Add chicken base, water, and potatoes, simmer 15 minutes. Add crumbled bacon, sausage, kale and cream. Simmer 4 minutes and serve.

* A few changes I made ~~~First of all I came close to doubling all the ingredients since I felt like I wanted plenty.  Instead of link sausage I used one roll of Jimmy Dean's Hot sausage that I browned. 

**It was suggested by a reader to include 1/2 t. Fennel Seed which I did, doubling this as well.  This really added to the flavor, so I strongly suggest you add it.

My family really seemed to enjoy this recipe and some asked for the recipe, so I think you will like it if this soup appeals to you.  Hey, it's another way to get your deep dark greens in!

How is everyone doing with organizing by now?  It came to my mind a cleaning/organizing method a friend shared with me years ago.  I have never tried it but was always intrigued by it.  She would take one room a month to totally clean and organize.  She would do a thorough job of cleaning from the ceiling fan to the crevices in the corners of the closet.  I'm sure some rooms wouldn't take a month while others might take a month and a half.  It seems like it might be worth a try.  By the fall or year end depending on the size of your house, everything would have a good going over.  Anyone want to try this??

We just got a new computer over the holidays and I am still trying to figure things out.  I have no pictures on this new PC and I'm haven't even tried downloading any.  I am very excited to have something with this amount of speed!  The old one was painfully slow and hard to pull up blogs for a quick peek.

Til next time...back to our cleaning, people!