Just~One~Donna

Another Friday night, another pizza.  Yum!  Tonight's pizza is made with hot Italian sausage and mushrooms.  Our hot sausage is locally made and includes soupy meats and spices.  Soupy, otherwise known as sopressata is a local Italian cured dry sausage. This is a hearty pizza, with plenty of zip and heat. We like our pizza with a little heat, but you can use a sweet sausage as well.   Use the best sausage you have in your area and your pizza will be equally delicious.   Here's how I make our pizza. Italian Sausage and Mushroom Pizza Ingredients Italian Sausage Pizza Ingredients 1 pizza dough 8 ounces fresh mozzarella cheese, sliced 2 ounces tomato sauce (your favorite jarred) 8 ounces Italian hot sausage, browned and drained 2 ounces sliced mushrooms 4 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese Parmesan cheese, freshly grated Parchment paper Directions Make your pizza dough earlier in the day.  Brown the hot sausage and drain.  Set aside.  Place a pizza stone on the

In honor of Saint Patrick's Day, and all that is green, today I'm making broccoli soup.  This is a creamy, and healthy soup with approximately 95 calories per serving, so you can eat it without guilt. Donna's Creamy Broccoli Soup Serves 4 Ingredients 1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil Broccoli Soup Ingredients 1 small yellow onion, diced 3 cloves garlic, sliced 1 lb fresh broccoli 4 cups low sodium chicken broth 1 1/2 tsp salt 1/2 tsp pepper 1/2 tsp dried thyme Directions Heat the oil in a heavy pot or Dutch oven.  Add the diced onion and cook until translucent, about 3 minutes.  Add the sliced garlic and cook for 1 minute. The Onion and Garlic Next add the broccoli, chicken broth and thyme.  I used fresh broccoli, but frozen will work just as well. Add the Broccoli, Thyme and Chicken Stock Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer until the broccoli is soft, approximately 10 minutes.  Remove from heat and cool for a few minutes.  Remov

Are you on Facebook?  I joined Facebook with a personal page a couple of years ago because I was curious about what it was all about.    Here's what Facebook says about itself: There are more than 500 million active users, about 70% outside the United States The average user has 130 friends, is connected to 80 community pages, groups and events, and creates 90 pieces of content each month  People spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook About 50% of the active users log on to Facebook in any given day.  People that use Facebook on their mobile devices are twice as active on Facebook than non-mobile users.  Wow!  Pretty impressive. How do you use Facebook?  I use Facebook to stay up to date with a small group of friends and family through my personal page.  It keeps me in the know about birthdays, new babies, weddings and other significant activities.  My "Friend List" is relatively short as compared to the average user's 130 friends.  A quick ch

Did you remember to spring ahead this weekend? The spring clock change always throws me off my game a bit.  Does it do the same for you?  Maybe a tasty little dessert will help you adjust.  Sometimes a fruit dessert is just the thing I need to make everything better.  When I'm looking for a tasty fruit dessert I usually rely upon a fruit crisp.  This Fruit Tart has all that is good about a fruit crisp with the added yumminess of a nutty bottom crust.  This dessert takes no time to pull together and the result is heaven in a bowl. Mixed frozen fruit was used to make this tart, but you can use any fresh or frozen fruit you choose.  Plums would be lovely.  Mixed berries would be colorful and delicious.  Peaches would light your fire.  Choose your fruit and give this a try. Fruit Tart Adapted from Ina Garten Fruit Tart Ingredients Ingredients 2 cups all-purpose flour 3/4 cup finely chopped walnuts 3/4 cup light brown sugar,   lightly packed 12 tablespoons cold, unsalted bu

Are you a social media junky, or are you someone who wonders what all this social media stuff is all about?  I have jumped in to social media with both feet.  Maybe you should, too. The term "social media" is thrown around a lot these days.  What does it mean?  Social media as defined by Merriam Webster : Facebook, Twitter and this  Just One Donna! blog are all forms of social media.   Much has been made of the tweets and ramblings of the likes of Lindsay Lohan and Charlie Sheen, but social media is much more than that.  The face of world politics is changing because of social media.  Social media has been credited with the recent turmoil in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. The financial world is also being impacted by social media.  This week CNBC ran a story about how the tweets of corn farmers are being used by commodities traders .  Another report by CNBC highlighted the research of Indiana University professer Johan Bollen in which he determined that Twitter could pred

Some days chili is the answer.  It doesn't matter what the question may be; chili is the answer.  Is it bone chilling cold where you are?  Do you want something hot, spicy and hearty for dinner?  Are you entertaining a group and need a tasty, budget friendly meal?  Chili is the answer. I haven't made chili in quite some time.  You know how sometimes you get an urge for something and you just can't rest until you have it?  Well, that happened this week with chili.  So, of course I had to make it.  When I went to get out my standby chili recipe I couldn't find it.  I guess it has been quite some time since I last made chili!  So I searched out a recipe that was most like the one I remembered making.  I found a recipe from Emeril Lagasse that seemed very similar to my old recipe with three key ingredient additions-beer, chocolate and Emeril's Essence.  I decided to give the recipe a try and share the results with all of you.  I tweaked Emeril's recipe a bit to

The birds were my alarm clock a couple of mornings this week.  They were singing away.  It's the first time I've heard them in a very long time.  It made me smile.  Spring is on its way. I don't know about you, but every year when March 1st rolls around I find myself getting impatient for spring.  This year it is especially so, with what seemed like one snowstorm after another in January and February.  Ever since Punxsutawney Phil made his prediction we would have an early spring this year I have been waiting, and waiting, and waiting. Finally, I thought when I heard the birds singing, spring is actually on its way.  You wouldn't know it by looking out at my front yard. I'm thinking that pile of snow will be with us till April! While birds waking me with their singing is a nice way to start the day is one indicator spring may be around the corner, it isn't enough to convince me.  I went in search of other signs.  I searched high and low, but the si