Italiano zuppa di patate

Or in English Italian potato chowder. I was craving a thick soup and I was also craving zuppa toscana from Olive Garden so I came up with this and, honestly, I like it better...and I hope you do too.

What you need:

1/2 white onion
About 6 cloves of garlic
2 cups of chopped kale
250grams Italian sausage (I just decased 4 sausages from a pack)
1 packet instant potatoes (I used home style flavour but any flavour would work as long as they're the flakes)
4 strips of bacon, cut into pieces
4 1/2 cups milk
2 cups shredded cheese
Salt and pepper

Chop onion, garlic, sausage and bacon and put into large sauce pan or pot with 2 tblsps of butter over medium-high heat and cook until the meat is cooked and most of the liquid has boiled off (save some for flavour) add salt and pepper. Once meat is cooked add potatoes flakes and milk, stir and add a little bit more pepper. Turn down to medium heat and bring to boil, once it starts bubbling add kale and stir it all in. Simmer over medium-low heat until kale is tender then add the cheese, stir again and simmer for another minute and that's it!
Makes 3 to 4 servings...depending on how big your bowl is ;)

Enjoy! 🍴

Honey Dill Sauce

If you're from Manitoba chances are honey dill sauce has been a staple in your diet for a long time. Unless you've visited or know someone from here, you may not know what honey dill sauce is.. well, it's just about the greatest damn sauce there is haha and even better is it's so easy to make.

What you'll need:

1/2 mayo (any kind)
1/4 cup honey (liquid)
1 tsp dried dill

What to do:

Put the mayo into a bowl...

Add your dill...

Then the honey (my husband doesn't like measuring stuff haha)

Looks neat..

Give it a stir and taste it. You may have to adjust the amounts to fit your particular taste.  I recommend putting in the fridge for half an hour before eating it as it helps develop the flavour a bit more.

Honey dill sauce can be enjoyed with a variety of things, most commonly it is served with chicken strips, but it's also good with french fries, on burgers, I enjoy putting it on salmon filets...you can enjoy it with whatever you want! 

Did you like this recipe? Share in the comments what you enjoy this sauce with. 

Honey garlic dijon chicken breast

So as you can see we eat a lot of chicken haha we also try to eat a lot of salmon. It's because I'm trying to limit how much red meat we eat...apparently it's bad for you so something hehe So last night I had chicken breast sitting in my fridge (because I bought it and was too lazy to package it up and out it in the freezer) so I decided we should just eat it! And we found the following recipe to be absolutely delicious!!

What you'll need:

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
6 cloves garlic, minced or chopped finely
1 tblsp garlic powder
2 tblsps dijon mustard
1/3 cup honey
Salt and pepper to taste
3 tblsps butter

What to do:

Preheat your oven to 425. Get an 8x8 baking pan (or something close to that size) and line it with tin foil; put pan into oven to warm. In a pan, melt butter over medium heat and add your garlic; you only want to soften the garlic, not brown it it! Next, add your honey, dijon and some salt and peppee ans stir until smooth. Let simmer for about 3 minutes to thicken slightly. While it's simmering, take your pan out of the oven and put your chicken in it, salt and pepper the chicken on both sides lightly. Your chicken can be touching but not over lapping. Next, pour tour sauce over the chicken ensuring that if your chicken is touching each other or the sides of the pan that you get sauce in all those nooks and crannies so it doesn't burn. Cook your chicken for 15 mins, flip and ladle some of the sauce over each piece and cook for an additional 20 mins.
That's it! All done. I served mine with a salad but this would be good with potatoes or rice or whatever you want!

Enjoy! :)

Pecan crusted salmon

So my husband and I love salmon. We would love to eat it once a week but I don't always remember to buy it haha this is a super simple recipe that I quickly whipped up with what I had laying around (yes, I really did have spare pecans lol)
So...

What you'll need:
Salmon (I used 4 small fillets)
Pecans (depending on the size of your fillets, maybe a 1/4 each)
Salt and pepper, to taste
Olive oil
Non-stick cooking spray

What to do:

Spray your pan or dish with the non-stick cooking spray. Put your fillets in skin side down. Salt and pepper them to your liking. Crush pecans to a crumble like consistency and coat the top of your salmon, pressing down to make sure they stick on. Drizzle over everything with olive oil. Bake at 425 for about 15 mins and the broil on high about 5 mins but make sure you keep a close eye on it while it's broiling...that can burn really quick. The broiling helps to caramelize the pecans a bit. Pair with potatoes, rice or veggies.
Super simple and really good!

Enjoy!

How to crochet: triple stitch

Hello and happy Friday and happy long weekend!! I trust you all have managed well with the double crochet so now we're going to move on to the triple crochet! It's very similar to the double crochet but with a couple extra, but easy steps. Righto, on to it then.

First, you will yarn over twice.

Then, insert your hook into your next stitch and yarn over...

Pull through and you should end up with 4 loops on your hook...

Yarn over again and pull through the first 2 loops that are on your hook, as shown...

You should then have 3 loops on your hook. Yarn over again and pull through the next 2 loops, as shown...

This time you'll have 2 loops left on your hook...

Yarn over once more and pull through the remaining 2 loops and your stitch is complete! As you can see it takes a little bit of extra time to do these stitches and they are quite tall, much taller than the previous stitches and they leave a much larger hole or gap between them. This stitch is good for a loose shawl or shopping bag or perhaps a summer blanket. I would not, however, recommend using it for a baby blanket or blanket for a small child as their fingers could get caught in the holes...I highly doubt it would cause any damage since it's just yarn but you never know with children. 

This really is an easy stitch, just more time consuming is all. Hope you enjoy it and if you have any questions feel free to leave me a comment.