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Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Sausage Tortellini Soup

I found this recipe here.

3 links Italian sausage  (I just used crumbled sausage)
4 cloves pressed garlic
1 onion, diced
½ c. water
2 15-oz. cans chicken broth
½ c. apple cider (I used apple juice because that is what I had)
1 16-oz. can diced tomatoes
1 8 oz. can tomato sauce
1 c. sliced carrots
1 tsp. dried basil
1 tsp. dried oregano
2 medium zucchini, grated
2 tablespoons dried parsley
8-10 oz. package cheese tortellini (check the freezer section of your grocery store; if you can find it there, it will almost always be way cheaper than fresh tortellini. Also, Barilla makes a great dry cheese tortellini)
2 Tbsp. dried parsley


Cook the sausage in large pot.
Chop onion and add to pot. Continue cooking until onions are translucent and your sausage is cooked.
Add tomatoes, tomato sauce, juice, water, chicken broth, carrots, oregano, and basil. Cover and simmer for 1/2 hour. Add parsley and zucchini and simmer for another 15 minutes or so. Add the tortellini and cook until tender, and then serve with bread and freshly-grated Parmesan.

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Candy Corn Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:
1 batch sugar cookie dough (like this one or this one)
yellow and orange food coloring

Optional:
Sanding sugar, coarse raw sugar, or sprinkles
almond bark or white chocolate, melted

Instructions:
Divide prepared sugar cookie dough into three equal portions.  Leave one as is and color one other portion yellow and another portion orange.
Line a standard loaf pan with plastic wrap.  Gently press layer of uncolored dough into bottom of pan and smooth flat, keeping it at least 1/2-3/4 inches high (you don’t have to use the whole pan if you have a small batch of dough) or larger if desired.  Layer orange dough on top of previous layer and smooth.  Finally layer yellow dough and smooth on top.  Wrap plastic over dough and chill until firm, 30-60 minutes in freezer or 1-2 hours in fridge.  Or you can store the dough in fridge for 2-3 days before baking.
Remove plastic and slice loaf into 1/4 inch slices. Trim top of slice to make straight line.  Cut each slice into triangle shape and dip top side in sugar if desired.  Bake according to sugar cookie directions.  Cool completely and then if desired, dip ends in almond bark or white chocolate and decorate with sprinkles.

I found this recipe here.