Lentil Soup with Sausage

Hello everyone! Today was such a chilly day in Edmonton, kind of damp and cold and overall just a little unpleasant! For dinner tonight we had the perfect antidote for the weather: a gorgeous, hot bowl of hearty Lentil Soup with Sausage. The recipe is from a favorite old recipe book at our house...Cosmic Soups! I think my parents got this gem as a wedding present...

Anyways, it had been quite some time since I had consumed a classic bowl of soup like this, and after dinner tonight all I could ask myself was: how come it had been so long?!? This soup was delicious!! It was perfectly seasoned (all from following the recipe exactly, no adjustments were needed) and steamy!

Lentil Soup with Sausage

Prep time: 2 hours

2 cups lentils

2 quarts stock (beef, chicken or vegetable)

1 cup chopped onion

1 cup chopped celery

2 large cloves of garlic, crushed

1 1/2 teaspoons curry powder

1/8 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon dried basil leaves

1/2 to 1 pound turkey sausage

1/2 cup dry white wine

1 [4 oz.] can tomato sauce

2 tablespoon fresh parsley, minced

salt and pepper

Rinse the lentils well.

Simmer lentils in the 2 quarts of stock for 1 to 1 1/2  hours.

Remove from heat before the lentils lose their shape.

In 2 tablespoons of olive oil saute: onion, celery, garlic, sausage, basil, curry, cumin, and parsley.

Add the sautéed ingredients to the lentils along with the tomato sauce and white wine.

Simmer for 1/2 hour, and salt and pepper to taste!

I swear I did not make this recipe book myself! It's a bizarre little home-y thing...

But sure has some great recipes!

 The only tip I could give you about this lovely soup is use spicy Italian sausages and take off the sausage casing! Theres nothing worse than the look of a cut up sausage with the casing still on...Enjoy!

xoxo

Mariel

Starting on Some Christmas Baking...

First of all...so excited to be starting a little food blog. I do love to eat, and watch cooking shows, and read recipes, and cook...and bake, so this is just perfect! Also perfect: procrastinating from studying for finals via baking! So that is exactly what I did today. Didn't get too much baking done at all though today (the day was a fairly short one due to a massive sleep in...). I just made some chocolate truffles and started on some home-made peanut butter cups.

The truffles turned out so pretty! And tasty. They were soo easy to make too:

1 (8 ounce) package of cream cheese

3 cups of powdered sugar

12 (1 ounce) squares of semi-sweet or dark baking chocolate, melted

1 tablespoon of vanilla

Mix together the cream cheese and powdered sugar. Melt the chocolate and add to the cream cheese mixture, then add the vanilla and pop in the fridge! Once the dough has kind of set up take er out and form into little balls and roll them in whatever you like.

I rolled mine in melted white chocolate, shredded coconut, mini chocolate chips, walnuts, dried cranberries, and crushed up sesame snaps (which...i tried one...particularly delicious). They look so nice and christmas-y together!

Took a little break from baking to have some of Mama F's dinner...soo good. I'm honestly not even sure what exactly it was...some sort of soup/stew/chili thing? Either way, it was fresh tasting and so nummy, and really cut all the sugar I had eaten nicely. Shanks Mom.

She made home-made biscuits too...my favorite (especially when smothered with butter). She always uses my grandma's recipe. It is the perfect biscuit recipe:

"Mother's Special Biscuits"

1/2 cup of soft butter

2 cups of flour

2 teaspoons of baking powder

2 tsp sugar

1 cup of half cream, half milk

pinch of salt

Mix well, roll out on floured counter, cut with cookie-cutter. Bake at 375-400 until golden brown. Yum.

                                           

I'm a messy baker.

Filling for home-made peanut butter cups!

I got lazy and didn't end up finishing the peanut butter cups, I will melt the chocolate and put it into the little muffin liners tomorrow... But I did eat alot of this filling...tastes exactly like the Reese's peanut butter cup filling! All that's in it is: equal parts smooth peanut butter (not the natural peanut butter...too oily) and cream cheese, and some icing sugar and vanilla! Very similar to the truffles... Although sometimes simple is the most delicious. I will finish these bad boys off tomorrow and hopefully have time to start some other Christmas baking!

xoxo

Mariel