Peasant Soup & Putting Food By giveaway

Some days are just great, others not so much, there are several factors in the great days that make them so. Such as:

• a cup of coffee in the morning
• a shower before tiny feet hit the floor in the morning
• hugs from the owners of the tiny feet
• clean clothes, or at least semi clean
• and a plan for meals
• ultimate good day? UPS delivery

I'm sure there are more but those are the tops for making people happy around here. I like the coffee one but perhaps even more satisfying is having a meal plan. Why? No panic at 4 pm. No freak out. I have planned ahead, I know what we'll be eating for lunch, usually leftovers from dinner the night before, and I know whats for dinner. It makes me feel settled, peace of mind is awesome. Today I missed the shower before little feet hit the floor, I had coffee but was out of milk but the clothes were clean and I had a plan. Soup.

Yes cold and rainy days in Alaska call for soup. Sausage, white beans, Israeli couscous and kale, Peasant Soup. So so good and easy really. And planned means I can start beans in the morning, hit the feed store, build a pen for new baby geese and turkeys, grab leftover salad for lunch, run to the doctor, mail etsy and ebay packages, visit friends, swoop in to target, get home and have dinner on the table in under 30 minutes. Plans, it's whats for dinner.

If you are using dried beans, you'll need to start them cooking early in the day. I never measure I jst cook up a vat because I'll make white bean dip the next day. Oh you want that recipe too? Ok, I'll post it soon!

Peasant Soup
1 TBSP oil
1 pound sausage-I used a local polish sausage made with reindeer meat-feel free to use any pre-cooked sausage you like
1/2 onion
1/2 green pepper
1 garlic clove
8 cups broth, vegetable works great here and homemade always tastes best
2 tsp rubbed sage
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon crushed rosemary
1 TBSP tomato paste
2 cups cooked white beans
1/3 cup of Israeli couscous or regular
salt and pepper to taste
4 large kale leaves

in a dutch oven heat the oil over medium high heat
chop the sausage in to bite sized pieces, for us that was circles cut in quarters
brown them for a few minutes in the oil, if medium high is too hot reduce heat a bit
chop the onion and peppers add to the sausage, continue browning
when the onion is softened mince the garlic and add
cook for 30 seconds or so
and then add the broth, you really don't want to scorch the garlic
bring the soup to a simmer, turning up the heat as needed
stir in the herbs and the tomato paste
add the beans and couscous
taste for salt and pepper add as desired-if using store bough broth you probably don't need much salt
remove the center stem from the kale and chop in to bite size pieces
add to the soup and cook until the couscous is done and the kale has softened between 5-10 minutes

This was a great ending to a great day that started with coffee and a plan. And I had a list in there somewhere, making sure I had things to cross off after getting them done. Ahhhh almost perfection.

Today is the last day to enter the Putting Food By giveaway, click the link above to enter. It's great, I actually have friends that read my blog now and they entered! Wahoo local readers, you rock, love you all!

And to get back to something I touched on earlier, we have new baby turkeys and 2 new baby geese. The geese are for keeps and the turkeys are for eating. Our big boy turk n' lurk who tromps around is getting too heavy to walk. So we decided to harvest him soon and raise more meat birds. We love our birds, they feed us and we love them everyday of their lives, it's hard to harvest them but we do. It's a big part of our lives, being able to butcher an animal you love will certainly slow down your conspicuous consumption of meat. But I digress, this was heading in the "how freaking cute is this" direction not the soap box direction so without further adieu I give you baby birds:

a very solemn turkey

perhaps peek a boo will cheer him up....

nope!

and crazy baby geese! they move so fast

I only have blurry shots of them

Peace and Love-