Perfect soup for a cold Winter's night.  I made this and after a day of shoveling snow, this hit the spot!  I use spinach in my version and sometimes throw in some extra onion.  Since I use a slightly spicy Italian sausage, I omitted the dash of hot sauce and let people add that to their own bowl of soup, if preferred.  You can use link or ground/bulk sausage in this recipe. I've tried both and both work great. ~Enjoy! Diane 

Zuppa Toscana  

Ingredients:
1 lb Italian sausage links or bulk/ground (mild sausage or spicy)
2 large potatoes,diced into bite sized cubes
2 medium onions, diced
1/4 cup bacon bits or crumbled cooked bacon
2-3 tablespoons garlic, minced
2 cups kale, spinach, swiss chard or kale, chopped
1 cup water
1 quart chicken broth
1 cup heavy cream with 2 tablespoons of flour, mixed together
salt/pepper to taste
hot sauce, *optional  to taste

Directions:
Chop or slice uncooked sausage into small pieces.
Brown sausage in your soup pot with the diced onion and potato. Add in the garlic the last 30 seconds during browning, just to release its flavor without scorching.  Add chicken broth and water to pot and stir. Cook on medium heat until potatoes are done (tender).
Add in the cooked bacon.
Salt, pepper and *add hot sauce to taste. Simmer for another 10 minutes.Turn to low heat.
Add in your choice of: spinach {kale or chard} 
and stir in the cream/flour. Heat through and serve.


SLOW COOKER Preparation:
 Brown sausage links in a saute pan with onion and potatoes.
 Place sausage, chicken broth, garlic, potatoes and onion in slow cooker.
 Add just enough water to cover the vegetables and meat (about a cup)
 Cook on high 3-4 hours (low 5-6 hours) until potatoes are soft.

30 minutes before serving:
Mix flour into cream removing lumps.
Add cream and spinach, kale or chard to the crock pot, stir.
Cook on high 30 minutes or until broth thickens slightly.
Add salt, pepper, and hot sauce to taste.

Recipe adapted from: Carl Barbaro
Photo by: Diane Baker for Canning and Cooking at Home 

  We attended one of our 'Annual Christmas Party/Pot Luck and Gift Exchanges' this year and there was a food "theme" this year of: Cheese.  Twenty-five friends bringing appetizers, main dishes and desserts - all containing some sort of cheese/s.  In all our sampling throughout the day - the 'stand out' favorite was a dish brought by our friends John and Missy.  It was a Chile Rellenos Casserole and tasted JUST LIKE the fried chile rellenos that you get at a good Mexican restaurant.  I was so happy that Missy shared her recipe with us!  I made this the other day and it was a hit here too - I love that this recipe can be expanded or reduced depending on how many you need to feed. ~Enjoy! Diane 

Chile Relleno Casserole

Ingredients: 
up to 18 canned whole green chiles, split, seeded, rinsed, blotted dry (I usually have a few leftover) 
1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella or pepper-jack cheese
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese 

Egg Mixture*
5 large eggs
1  cup. milk (I used 1/2 Cup heavy cream and 1/2 Cup milk) 
1/2 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp ground black pepper
1 dash Tabasco sauce (or more to taste)

Directions:
Place the green chiles in a colander placed in the sink and let drain for about 15 minutes. While chiles drain, preheat oven to 350F. Grease a 8x8 casserole dish with non-stick spray or olive oil. 
When chiles are drained, split open each chile, scrape out any lingering seeds, and cut into 4 strips each, then spread chiles out on a paper towel to drain more, pressing down with another towel to get them as dry as you can.  
Lay a flat layer of chiles covering the bottom of the baking dish.
Top the layer of chiles with cheese (you will have three layers total so, divide cheese into thirds.)  Lay down another layer of flattened chiles, followed by cheese - finishing up with a final layer of chiles on top. Sprinkle with remaining cheese over the top.
Put the next five ingredients into a large bowl and whisk well to incorporate, Pour egg-milk mixture over chiles and cheese, taking care to get it evenly distributed.
Bake until mixture is bubbling and cheese on top is lightly browned, about 45 minutes total baking time. (watch it carefully or the top can get too brown.)  

Serve hot, with sour cream and salsa if desired. This will keep in the fridge for a few days, but you probably won't have any leftovers. 

Recipe Adapted from:  "Chile Relleno Jose"  by: Missy Gottl
Photos by: Diane Baker for Canning and Cooking at Home 

There are recipes that call out to be made in my Dutch oven. I think cuts of meat do wonderful in mine because of the basting spikes that the lid offers.  It flavors the entire dish continually while cooking low and slow...I do stove-top roast the vegetables and sear the meat before popping the entire dish into the oven for a good 4-5 hours.  This truly was 'fall apart/fork tender.
You can increase the beef stock and omit the red wine if you are so inclined but, the red wine does work well with the thyme and rosemary in this recipe. ~Enjoy! Diane 

Pot Roast {Dutch Oven}
Ingredients: 
3-4 lbs pot roast
salt & pepper
2 onions
6-8 carrots
2 sprigs rosemary
2 sprigs thyme
olive oil
1 cup red wine, optional
2 cups beef broth/stock

Directions: 
Preheat your oven to 280 F. 
Peel and cut the onions into halves or quarters.  Wash and cut the carrots into large 2-3 inch chunks, add both to a large dutch oven, heated with 2 tbs of olive oil.  On your stove-top, over medium high heat, cook the vegetables a good 5-8 minutes until slightly browned, remove from dutch oven and set aside.  Sprinkle salt and pepper all over your cut of beef. Add a tablespoon of olive oil, to the dutch oven that had the vegetables in it, if needed. Sear your beef on medium-high on all sides until browned (about 3-4 minutes per side and 2-3 minutes on "ends.")  Remove beef and set aside.  To the already hot dutch oven, add your one cup red wine (or one cup beef stock, if no wine is being used) to deglaze the pan, scraping down sides and getting all the good cooked bits into the wine.  Add back in your seared cut of beef, placing the onions and carrots around the perimeter of meat.  Add the remaining beef stock/broth to the dish until the liquid comes halfway up the meat.  Lay your rosemary and thyme on top, Cover dutch oven with the heavy, tight fitting lid and place in the oven to cook for approx. 4-5 hours.  I remove my dutch oven from oven and test with a fork for tenderness. Once done, remove the thyme and rosemary sprigs. Remove meat and vegetables to a plate and keep warm while you prepare the gravy.  I use my fat separator and measure out the liquid from the dutch oven.  Usually the dish renders about 1.5 cups of liquid.  I add 1.5 Tbs butter and 1.5 Tbs flour to the dutch oven and stir until the flour browns and releases a slightly nutty smell, I then add back in my hot liquid slowly while whisking until the liquid thickens into a gravy.  Once the gravy is to my liking, I add back in the meat and stir to coat.  You can serve the meat and gravy separate. I just prefer to coat the meat in the gravy and serve my vegetables on the side.  

Note: if not using the 1 cup red wine, increase the beef broth.stock to 3 cups total. As well, larger cuts of beef will add time to your oven cook time. 

Recipe & Photos by: Diane Baker for Canning and Cooking at Home 

..."Considering the ingredients I used, I was a little afraid it wouldn't be fit to eat.. It ended up being a really good jam with a fruity, nut-like flavor. I'll definitely be making this one again!" JD

JD's New Years Jam 
2 cups blackberry juice and pulp
2 cups sliced strawberries
1/4 cup dry red wine
1/4 cup maple flavored bourbon
6 sprigs spearmint (leaves only, minced)
3 cups sugar
1 pkg pectin
1/4 tsp butter

In small bowl, mix 1/4 cup sugar with pectin, set aside.
Dump fruit, wine, bourbon, mint and sugar into large saucepan, add butter to reduce foaming. 
Bring to rolling boil, adding in the sugar/pectin mixture, bring back to rolling boil and boil a full 1 minute. Reduce heat and ladle into prepared, sanitized jars, leaving 1/4" headspace. Water bath process 15 minutes, adjusting for your altitude.
Makes about 5 half-pints.

Recipe & Photo by: JD for Canning and Cooking at Home