Update: This giveaway is closed.
They say home is where the heart is – I say it’s where a good plate of food awaits you. It doesn’t have to be fancy, it doesn’t have to require hours of your time or endless trips to the grocery store – but it does have to feel authentic, and to be good enough for you to want to savor it with your family, and to cherish it in your thoughts forever. Home is where great memories are made, and that’s one of the best things about food: that it’s an excellent “memory maker.” Food is not just sustenance, but also human emotion – not just chemistry, but also love, or so I think.
To me, memory making is one of the greatest assets of the recipes featured in Martina McBride’s latest cookbook, Martina’s Kitchen Mix: My Recipe Playlist for Real Life. After a 4-year break, country music star Martina McBride returns to the food publishing world with a book that is not only gorgeous, but also inspiring. What to win a copy of her cookbook? Read on 🙂
As a wife and a mom, I like to spend time looking for recipes that are accessible and family-friendly, yet oftentimes my quest ends in disappointment because the recipes I come across involve ingredients that are hard to find, suggest unrealistic cooking times or result in downright unappetizing dishes. Thankfully, Martina McBride’s latest book suffers from no such flaws. Featuring “more than 100 simple and satisfying recipes filled with fresh, seasonal ingredients and downhome flavor,” Martina’s Kitchen Mix encourages its readers to “mix things up in the kitchen and create your own delicious memories” – and that’s exactly what my family and I have been doing this past couple of months with great success.
There are so many memorable recipes to choose from! From the Chicken Panini with Southwestern Pesto, whose generous helping of fiery chipotle mayo perfectly complements the cilantro-based pesto…
… to the Slow-Cooker Chicken Tikka Masala featuring melt-in-your-mouth chicken and a delicious and gorgeous sauce chock-full of Indian spices…
…to vibrant desserts such as the Individual No-bake Chocolate-Cherry Cheesecakes with Biscoff Crust, light and supple like a summer night’s dream…
…and the County Fair Orange Cake, which was fabulous to eat several days after baking, splashed with a sizable dose of orange&butter glaze…
…all the dishes I tried from Martina McBride’s latest cookbook (believe me, there were several others I didn’t get the chance to photograph because the food was devoured too quickly – it really was that good!) were delicious and perfect to serve to my family. Equally important, I truly appreciated the attention to detail displayed in the tried&tested recipes – the ingredient quantities were just as described, and so were the resulting portion sizes and numbers.
If I were to single out an absolute family favorite from Martina McBride’s cookbook, that would be the Lasagna Soup. I picked this recipe to try out because the accompanying picture of the finished dish looked amazing; reading the recipe a few minutes later, I just knew this soup was bound to be a winner 🙂
I decided on several substitutions the first time I made this soup: I couldn’t find orecchiette at the grocery store, so I ended up using medium shells. I also didn’t have fire-roasted canned tomatoes in my pantry (oh no!), so I made the soup with regular canned tomatoes. Lastly, I used fresh parsley instead of basil (DH has a visceral fear of basil 😊).
I served the soup hot, with melted mozzarella & parmesan on top, as per Martina’s recommendation. Sooo decadent, sooo good!
I made lasagna soup several times ever since with all the required ingredients (including fresh basil, lol), and the end result was always amazing. Hearty, stunningly beautiful and exhibiting a subtle hint of spice, this soup is a winner if you’re looking for a dish guaranteed to impress your friends and family. They will ask for seconds – guaranteed 😉
Overall, I was very impressed with Martina McBride’s latest cookbook, and I highly recommend it if you’re looking for flavorful, honest and straightforward family-oriented meals that come from the heart. This can be a great addition to your culinary library or a great gift for the foodie(s) in your life.
You can find the recipe for the Lasagna Soup below. Want to cook more stellar dishes from Martina’s book? Head over to my Instagram account on Monday 03/25/2019 to enter my giveaway for a chance to win a copy of Martina’s Kitchen Mix. Good luck! 🙂
| Prep Time | 45 minutes |
| Cook Time | 30 minutes |
| Servings |
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- 2 tsp olive oil
- 1 1/2 lb ground spicy Italian sausage
- 3 medium onions, chopped (about 2 cups)
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 tsp dried oregano (or 2 tablespoons chopped fresh oregano)
- 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 (28-ounce) can fire-roasted diced tomatoes, undrained
- 2 bay leaves
- 6 cups chicken broth
- 1/2 pound (8 ounces) small orecchiette pasta or elbow macaroni
- 1/2 cup finely chopped fresh basil leaves
- 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper (optional)
Ingredients
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- Heat the olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium. Add the sausage, breaking up into bite-size pieces; brown for about 5 minutes. Add the onions, and cook until softened, about 6 minutes. Add the garlic, oregano, and crushed red pepper, and cook 1 minute. Add the tomato paste, and stir well. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes or until the tomato paste turns a rusty brown.
- Stir in the diced tomatoes, bay leaves, and chicken broth. Bring to a boil; reduce the heat, and simmer for 30 minutes. Cook the pasta according to the package directions. Stir into the soup. Stir in the basil.
- Stir together the mozzarella and Parmesan. Taste the soup and season with salt and pepper, if desired. Discard the bay leaves.
- To serve, ladle the soup into individual bowls, and top with the cheese mixture.
- TIP: Don’t cook the soup too long or let it boil after adding the pasta or it will get mushy as it absorbs the broth. You may want to consider cooking the pasta separately, and then adding some to individual bowls before ladling the soup over it. This is especially helpful if you anticipate any leftovers. Buy ground Italian sausage instead of links for this recipe, so you’re not stuck removing the meat from the casings.
- Recipe credit: Excerpted from Martina’s Kitchen Mix by Martina McBride. Copyright © 2018 Oxmoor House. Reprinted with permission from TI Inc. Books, a division of Meredith Corporation. New York, NY. All rights reserved.
*Disclaimer: While I received a complimentary cookbook to facilitate this review, all opinions expressed here are my own.
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