Fake Olive Garden Night

I have plenty of fond memories of Olive Garden. In high school we would go as a large group and there would be a bread stick eating competition (dangerous), and meeting my girlfriends for soup, salad, bread sticks, and plenty of gossip. Two of my favorite items from the restaurant is their crack salad dressing (seriously, it's the best stuff ever) and the zuppa toscana (spicy sausage, potato, and kale) soup. I thought I'd try my hand at making some "knock off" recipes and they were a success!

Let's start with the salad dressing. I used this version from Realmomkitchen. It was incredibly simple to make and tasted pretty spot on to the real thing. Let's get down to it. Here's what you'll need to get:

Ingredients

• 1 pkg. Good Seasons Italian Dressing (prepare it according to the instructions on the back)
• ½ tsp. dried Italian seasoning
• ½ tsp. salt
• ¼ tsp. black pepper
• ½ tsp. sugar
• ½ tsp garlic powder
• ½ Tbsp. mayonnaise
• ¼ cup olive oil
• 2 Tbsp. vinegar
• 1½ Tbsp water
• 4 Tbsp. grated Parmesan cheese

Instructions

1. Whisk it all together and stick it in the fridge for 2 hours. Trust me, it tastes much better after you let it all mellow together and get happy in the fridge!
2. Serve over salad, use it to dip some garlicy bread, as a marinade, etc. Enjoy!

Clearly, I should have taken a picture right away. This was popular in my house and this is a picture of the final bits (which I finished at lunch today). You can see it looks a lot like the real deal! I added a little less oil than all that was required and substituted with some water. Use your own judgement!

The second recipe was for the zuppa toscana soup. I hate to tell you how easy this is because it seems so impressive until someone sees the recipe. To start with, this is a crockpot (one of my favorite kitchen items) recipe. This recipe is from keyingredient and I made a few slight changes. To begin, gather these items:

Ingredients

• 1 lb. Italian sausage (I used spicy Italian, but you can substitute mild depending on your taste)
• 2 large baking potatoes, cut into about 8 chunks each
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 3-4 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 C kale, chopped (I used a little more than this because I wanted to use all the kale I bought. Turned out great)
• 16 oz. chicken broth
• 1 quart (4 C) water
• 1 C heavy whipping cream

Instructions

1. Brown the sausage in a pan, drain.
2. Add cooked sausage, chicken broth, water, garlic, potatoes, and onion in the slow cooker.
3. Cover and cook on high for 3-4 hours until the potatoes are cooked and soft.
4. Turn the slow cooker off and add the kale.
5. Cover and let sit for 5 minutes.
6. Add whipping cream (I waited another five minutes so it could heat the cream) and serve alongside your delicious salad and some garlicy bread.

In my opinion, this is a perfect dinner for the snowy weather we've been having recently! It just started snowing again and we have already had close to 8 inches. Tonight I'll be making a spicy chorizo and chicken pasta to warm us up--check back for the recipe and picture!

-M.