If you need to order Father’s Day Gifts or your favorite seasonings and sauce, I have a Pampered Chef Catalog show open. CLICK HERE to place your order online or just email me. Any orders submitted today will go into the drawing for the Manual Food Processor – a $49 value yours FREE! Anyone who books a show for May or June will get an additional $20 free credit. But act fast. I close out this show tonight, Wednesday, May 17th at 8pm!

Tonight I pulled some Italian sausage out to defrost without really knowing what I planned to make. I just started cooking the first few steps below and then decided to go with the soup dish. My mom had actually just mentioned the Italian Wedding Soup from Olive Garden early today so I suppose that is kind of where the idea originated.

I first browned some diced bacon while I boiled some diced new potatoes. I then removed the bacon from the pan and added a little olive oil to the pan. I dropped in 1/3 of the boiled new potatoes and cooked them flipping occassionally until they were nice and crispy. I removed them from the pan to drain on paper towels and added the Italian sausage to the same pan to brown. In the meantime, I cooked some thinly sliced onions in a stock pot with some diced celery. I added some salt and pepper and cooked until the onions were nice and soft. I then added 3 cups of milk and two bay leaves to the onions and celery and brought it to a soft boil. I added the boiled new potatoes that were not fried to the soup and heated through. I then put two tablespoons of flour into a little bowl and added some of the hot milk from my pot to create a little slurry. I added the slurry to the soup pot and stirred to thicken. Once the liquid had thickened slighty, I added in the Italian sausage and bacon. I added some chopped fresh baby spinach. I also added some fresh thyme and parsley. When the spinach wilted a little, I tasted and seasoned the soup with a little more with salt and pepper. I had also chopped up some chicago style bread, tossed the diced pieces in some olive oil and added Italian seasoning. I threw them in a 350 degree oven for a few minutes to toast up while the soup was finishing. I served the soup in shallow bowls garnishing with the fried potatoes,toasted croutons, and a sprig of parsley.

Thank to everyone that came out to support us at the Mt. Laurel Spring Festival and Oak Mountain Middle School Expo last month. We were able to raise over $200 towards the Hope for McKenna fundraiser. The goal of the fundraiser is to help raise money for McKenna’s upcoming treatments including starting her speech therapy lessons and some much needed dental work. I’ve asked her mama, my baby sister Tracy, to please send us some more details regarding McKenna’s treatment so I can share it with all of you.

Now that McKenna is 3 years and 4 months old, it is important that we work harder than ever to help this amazing little girl during this vital growth period. Please take some to visit our new online store full of unique crafts and gifts. This items were all made by her family to help aide in the fundraising efforts. All proceeds go directly to McKenna’s medical expenses. Thank you and God Bless.

I am loving these new market bags that my wonderful mother has made. She has crocheted some beautiful bags for you to take with you to the farmer’s market or craft fair. I’m a lucky girl because I was able to pick out my own colors for my bag. Check out the current market bags we have in inventory and keep your eye out for new colors and designs coming soon. Pick out your one-of-a-kind, gorgeous market bag for just $20!

This past weekend, I spent the day at Oak Mountain Middle School’s Expo and Fair in my wonderful Pampered Chef booth cooking for guest and making new friends. The hit recipe was the Mango Confetti Salsa from page 5 in our new 2011 spring catalogs. Tonight, I needed to make something fast for dinner and since I had some leftover ingredients I thought it would be great to try the salsa on some fresh tilapia filets. I knew the recipe was a fast fix and Zoey loves fresh mango and any kind of fish.

I simply heated my Executive Cookware grill pan on medium high with the grill press in it so they would heat together. I sprinkled the three tilapia filets with the Crushed Peppercorn & Garlic Rub and set them aside to become room temperature.

To make the Mango Confetti Salsa I altered the recipe slightly. Instead of using bell peppers, I bought a big bag of smaller, sweet peppers from the grocer. I deseeded one each of the red, orange, and yellow sweet peppers, chop them in large chunks and throw them in the Manual Food Processor. I then used the Veggie Wedger to cut the red onion in 6 sections and added two of the wedges to the food processor.  I used the Citrus Press to juice one small lime, adding it to the food processor with a pinch of salt and 1/2 a teaspoon of the Chili Lime Rub. I then deseeded one jalapeño and diced it fine adding it to the food processor. I do this to ensure there are no big chunks of jalapeño in my salsa. I then manually process the ingredients to make sure everything is diced finely. Lastly, I use my Mango Wedger to remove the seed from my mango and the Avocado Peeler to remove the skin. I set a few pieces aside for Zoey and then added the rest to the food processor and pulsed to incorporate the mango into the pepper mixture. Within 5-7 minutes I have made a delicious salsa.

I sprayed my grill pan and grill press with a little Garlic-Infused Canola Oil that I had in my Kitchen Spritzer and added the fish, placing the press on top. I cooked the fish 1-2 minutes per side.  I served the fish watch a few tablespoons of the mango salsa on top.  My sides were stuffed tomatoes and Curry Couscous.  This dish is so light, flavorful and fast that I hope you try it at home!

This morning my lovely husband, Adam, had what he called on his twitter feed a #RandomBreakfastCraving for #tinypancakes – in other words, crepes.  He searched online and found a great Basic Crepe recipe at AllRecipes.com.  By the time I made it downstairs he had already fired off most of the crepes and was pulling out ingredients for the filling. 

I had some left over mascarpone cheese from the dish I made last night, The Pampered Chef® Creamy Broccoli & Sun-Dried Tomato Orzotto. We wanted to make the mascarpone sweeter so we added a tablespoon of red raspberry preserves to 2 ounces of the cheese. We then added a 1/2 a teaspoon of confectioner’s sugar and whipped it until it was smooth. As an additional filling we took a handful of blueberries, sprinkled a little caster sugar over them and another dollop of the red raspberry preserves and heated them in the microwave for 15 seconds. When they were warm, we smashed them slightly with the back of the fork. We filled a crepe with the mascarpone cream and the smashed blueberries, folded it up and then sifted confectioner’s sugar over the top. Delicious.

I am so blessed to have a husband that loves to cook as much as I do and who always tries to make me special treats as a surprise. Together we are willing to taste just about anything and I think that is what makes our food adventures so fun. The kitchen and dining table are our favorite places to be with each other. Holding hands, licking our lips and saying "Mmmm, that is fantastic". I thank God for him every day.

My sister, Danielle made this up the other night and she said it was AWESOME! The idea is to use up any and all of the veggies in your fridge. Fresh, frozen, canned or even leftovers will work. There is no wrong way to make this! Just remember to add frozen veggies first and canned veggies last.

Serves 12-16

• 2 12-oz pkgs any flavor chicken sausage without casing or casings removed
• 1 cup any kind of onions chopped or 2 leeks cut lengthwise and then sliced on bias
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 3-4 cups of any root or squash-like vegetables on hand: celery, carrots, potatoes, yams, green beans, squash, zucchini; slice or cube into small, equal sizes so that they cook in about the the same amount of time
• 2 cups leafy vegetable like kale, cabbage or spinach, chopped
• 1 can beans like red kidney, garbanzo, cannellini or northern beans
• 10 cups vegetable or chicken stock
• 2-4 tablespoons chopped fresh herbs of your choice such as rosemary, sage, thyme, parsley (If you have very flavorful sausage, you could even skip this ingredient)
• Salt and pepper

Break up chicken sausage with hands or back of spoon and add to large stock pot over medium heat. Cook for 2-3 minutes and then add garlic, onion and celery. Cook until vegetables are slightly tender. Add stock, root/squash vegetables and herbs to pot. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. Cook for 15-20 minutes until potatoes and squash are almost done (should be able to easily pierce with a fork or knife). Then add leafy vegetables and canned beans. Simmer for an additional 10 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste and serve.

One of the ladies in my office brought this Snack Mix thing in today that is AWESOME!  Thought I’d share the recipe.

Ingredients

• 4 sticks butter
• 2 cups light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white corn syrup
• 14 oz box of Crispix (or Chex, which I used because I couldn’t find Crispix)
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 2 cups peanuts
• 1 1/2 bags microwave popcorn

Directions: Melt butter, then add sugar and corn syrup. Bring to a boil and stir for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and add vanilla and baking soda. Mix Crispix, popcorn and peanuts in two 9×13 pans (it will barely fit) and pour the liquid over. Stir to coat. Bake at 225 degrees for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes. DO NOT FORGET to stir every 15 minutes.