Soup, Sheep and Celebrities

Thanks for all the positive comments on last weeks soup!  I can't wait to share this second recipe with you - it was yummy, too, in an entirely different way.  Here are a few of the key ingredients ~

I had intended to make a Pasta-Sausage stew type concoction, but after working outside a lot for the past few days both Bill and I were feeling a little cold, stuffy and achey.  I didn't want something heavy and I was craving some super foods....enter kale, freshly dug garlic and bright healthy peppers to make a very quick, savory soup.  This was literally ready to eat in thirty minutes, and about ten of that was preparing the vegetables.

SAUSAGE & KALE SOUP
A recipe adapted and tweaked from one I found in an older Better Homes & Garden magazine

8 ounces fully-cooked smoked sausage, sliced (I used a delicious German sausage from a local shop that is very dense and garlicky)

1 medium onion, chopped

Minced garlic (the recipe called for 1 Tbsp.  I used the entire bulb of a small, freshly dug garlic from my neighbors garden.  This is a warm and spicy garlic!)

4 to 6 cups chicken broth

3 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks

About 8 cups fresh kale, stems removed and leaves chopped (this would be about 12 ounces)

Heat a pot over medium high heat (I added about a tablespoon of butter to cook the sausage in)  Add sausage and saute for 5 minutes or till lightly browned.  Stir in onion and garlic, saute another 3 minutes or till softened.  Add broth and bring to a boil.

Stir in potatoes and kale.  Simmer, partially covered, for 10-12 minutes or till potatoes are tender.  Serve.

My tweaks ~  Well, as I mentioned above I used a lot more garlic than the recipe called for.  Like I said, I was feeling a little like I was catching a cold ;)  I added some diced red pepper along with the onions and garlic (and this was a small dice)  At the end, I added a squeeze of fresh lemon juice to brighten it up (just cut a lemon in half and squeezed the juice in) and when I dished it up, I did a small grating of Parmesan cheese over it.  Bill ate his soup with crackers, I ate mine with the crust of a rustic white bread I had made earlier in the week.

I didn't grow the kale, it came from a dear older lady who always has small treats like this at her booth at Farmers Market.  She grows lots of fun varieties of things.  The leaves were still small and tender, I didn't even have to remove the stems!  We have had a few hard frosts (see the picture below), enough to help sweeten the kale.  This soup was exactly what we needed and we made pigs of ourselves cleaning it all up.  I hope Edna has some more kale at Farmers Market this week....

We have had about three heavy frosts now

I just included the shot above to show some of the heavy frost we have had and a few of the sheep out in it.  The rams have been working pretty hard, hopefully getting ewes bred for lambs early next spring.  I would like to start writing a bit more about the sheep side of things here at the farm, what we do and how we make decisions about them.  Is that something you would like to read?

And finally, a word about celebrities - local celebrities that I happen to know!  You have heard me speak of Angie and family at Maple Valley Off-Grid Farm right here in Michigan.  They are living off-grid and sharing their love of the Lord, the land and their family.  Well, they are going to be on the Anderson Cooper show!!! Yes, really ;)  The show will air on Tuesday, October 25 on CBS.  Locally it is on at 4 pm.  If you have a chance to check it out, or look at their blog, be sure to do so.  I hope they are well represented - they are really neat people.