Sunday Funday

Sunny, crisp fall Sundays fill me with joy.   Sundays, as I've blogged before, are just so packed with memories for me.  Opera and omelettes and football or golf - it's the Sunday soundtrack of my childhood.  I love perpetuating those sounds and smells and, for me, having a Bears game on while prepping some hearty meals is a little slice of October heaven.   This Sunday, while Dylan and I watched an incredibly exciting and devastating Bears game, I got to work.

This  week's menu:  Caldo Verde and a giant vat of homemade spaghetti sauce.

Caldo Verde is one of my favorite soups and it's awesome in the fall - packed with yumminess like kale and potatoes & sausage.  This time I used turkey sausage but any type of cooked sausage will do.

 Head up about 3Tbsp olive oil

sautee 2 large chopped onions and about 3 cloves chopped garlic until translucent, about 5 minutes on med-high

 thinly slice two large russet potatoes. 

I LOVE my mandolin. Thanks, Christy!

Add the potatoes and sautee under med-high heat for two minutes, stirring constantly.

 

  Meanwhile, prep a bunch of kale. 

 

  Wash it, remove the tough spine (fold each piece in half and just cut it off,) then thinly slice the pile of leaves.  set aside.

 Add 6 cups chicken broth or stock to the onion/potato situation.  (You could use vegetable stock and faux-sausage if you roll that way.)  Cover and reduce to a simmer and let cook for 20 minutes, until potatoes are tender.

At this point you can use a hand blender and pulverize the potatoes, if you like the soup more like a bisque, or just leave it as is, with the potatoes still somewhat intact but soft.

 MEANWHILE, back at the ranch, get yourself about a pound of cooked sausage.  You can get kielbasa or andouille or just cook up some turkey sausage, as I did here. 

Thinly slice the cooked sausage & add it to the soup, then let it heat to temperature, about 5 minutes. 

Then add the whole pile of kale you've cut into small ribbons/strips, stir into the soup and let it heat until kale wilts, about two minutes.  IT'S SO GOOD!

Next, I made a gigantic pot of my favorite spaghetti sauce. 

 Cook up 1 lb ground beef, 1lb spicy pork sausage, 2 tsp chopped garlic and two chopped onions until meat is cooked up and sausage is broken up into small pieces.

 Drain the disgusting fat.  Give some to your doggie he/she will adore you.

 Add all the things:

2 tsp oregano

2 tsp basil

2 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp pepper

2 Tbsp brown sugar

1 large can tomato paste

1 can beef broth

1 lg can crushed tomatoes

1 lg can whole tomatoes, broken up by hand

fill one of the large cans with water to rinse out and pour that into the mix.

 simmer forever and ever.  Add a couple tablespoons chopped fresh parsley.

 ahhhhhhh, Sunday.

 my football watching buddy. One needs support when watching a loss like this one.

Then?  If you're really, really lucky, you get to invite over your friend Lindsay's two adorable sons Milo & Archie, aged 3&5, for dinner.   

 How lucky am I?