Aisle Twelve

The inspiration for this dish came from a recipe in Everyday Food.  What I love about it is that it is basically a complete meal in one delicious package; you've got your meat, your veggies and its all wrapped in delicious puff pastry.  Puff pastry is one of the best items in the cooking world.  You defrost a sheet and wrap it around some ingredients and voila, you've got a restaurant quality meal.  Beef hand pies remind me of something we have in Northern Michigan called pasties.  I haven't had a pasty in years but this is kind of a stepped up version of that.  Feel free to switch up the veggies or use turkey or chicken instead of beef.  This dish would be a complete meal served with a simple green salad. It's safe enough for kids and could even be nice enough for company.  Beef Hand Pies - makes 8 pies 1 package puff pastry, thawed flour for dusting olive oil 1 clove garlic, minced 1 small onion, diced 1 lb ground beef sirloin 2 teaspoons dried thyme

It's officially soup season.  I'm not a huge fan of soups but if you give me an interesting flavor combination, I will give it a try.  This was a recipe I found on Pinterest.  It's a copy cat recipe of Zuppa Toscana at Olive Garden.  When I go to Olive Garden I O.D. on salad and bread sticks and Eggplant Parmesan.  I don't think I've had another single item off the menu; I love those too much.  I know Joe liked this soup so I decided to give it a try.  He liked it almost as much as his favorite soup, Mulligatawny .  Actually, he said he might like it better.  This soup has a nice heat to it.  I used mild spicy Italian sausage as well as the red pepper flakes.  I am not a huge fan of heat, but I like it in the background and this is definitely there.  The kale in the soup makes you feel like you're being a little healthy - forgetting about the sausage of course.  With the potatoes and the white wine cream broth, it's a great winter dinner! Zuppa Toscan