I haven't been doing a lot of cooking in the past week. When my husband works, he's not home for dinner (actually he's not really home at all) so I don't really cook. Cooking is a big part of my life, but this week has been more about home improvement and eating easy salads.
Instead of cooking, I painted the front porch railing. It had been black and peeling so I did a nice aged bronze kind of finish.
And just so you guys know, painting is a huge part of my life as well. And not just painting canvases. My motto is "I can paint that." And I can and have. We painted every surface of our new house when we moved in. I even painted the kitchen counters and floors. It works pretty well if you have any type of unbearable laminate. So if anything isn't aesthetically pleasing to me, I paint it.
On to food...
I actually did finally prepare something from scratch last night and it was kind of accidental. I initially planned to make turkey burgers but to make them super scrumptious I was going to mix in some hot Italian sausage with the ground turkey. Instead of defrosting the sausage, I cooked it so I had to think of another use for it. I also bought frozen corn at the store without realizing I already had a full bag in the freezer so I found myself with these extra ingredients and thought a corn and sausage chowder would be delicious.
INGREDIENTS:
2 1/2 c frozen corn
2-4 links Italian sausage (depending on how sausagey you want your soup)
2 potatoes, peeled and chopped into small chunks
8 c chicken or vegetable stock
1 sm onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 red pepper, seeded and chopped (I had a frozen bag of chopped peppers from trader Joes, so I used that)
1 c skim milk
1/4 c flour
1 T olive oil
1 T fresh parsley
1T fresh rosemary
1/2 T fresh thyme
1/8 t salt
1/4t pepper
DIRECTIONS:
Heat a dutch oven or large pan with 7 c stock, potatoes and herbs to high heat, allow to boil then reduce heat to medium and cook, covered, for 30 minutes
Heat saute pan to medium high and add 1c stock, olive oil, and sausages, let boil then reduce to medium
Cook sausages until liquid evaporates and sausages are browned, about 10 minutes
Remove sausages, cool
In same pan add onion, garlic and pepper and saute for about 5 minutes, onions should be golden and they should have absorbed some flavor from the sausages
Remove from heat and add the flour to the onion mix and stir to coat
Add corn to stock and cook for 5 minutes
Add milk to stock and cook another 5 minutes
Add all additional ingredients and cook for an additional 10-15 minutes, until theickened
This soup was super yummy. I think it is more appropriate for the cooler seasons, but the vibrant pepper and sausage and sweet corn were a yummy combo. It was a nice accompaniment to the turkey burgers, so I think I may freeze some of this to have the same meal again.
Instead of cooking, I painted the front porch railing. It had been black and peeling so I did a nice aged bronze kind of finish.
And just so you guys know, painting is a huge part of my life as well. And not just painting canvases. My motto is "I can paint that." And I can and have. We painted every surface of our new house when we moved in. I even painted the kitchen counters and floors. It works pretty well if you have any type of unbearable laminate. So if anything isn't aesthetically pleasing to me, I paint it.On to food...
I actually did finally prepare something from scratch last night and it was kind of accidental. I initially planned to make turkey burgers but to make them super scrumptious I was going to mix in some hot Italian sausage with the ground turkey. Instead of defrosting the sausage, I cooked it so I had to think of another use for it. I also bought frozen corn at the store without realizing I already had a full bag in the freezer so I found myself with these extra ingredients and thought a corn and sausage chowder would be delicious.INGREDIENTS:
2 1/2 c frozen corn
2-4 links Italian sausage (depending on how sausagey you want your soup)
2 potatoes, peeled and chopped into small chunks
8 c chicken or vegetable stock
1 sm onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 red pepper, seeded and chopped (I had a frozen bag of chopped peppers from trader Joes, so I used that)
1 c skim milk
1/4 c flour
1 T olive oil
1 T fresh parsley
1T fresh rosemary
1/2 T fresh thyme
1/8 t salt
1/4t pepper
DIRECTIONS:
Heat a dutch oven or large pan with 7 c stock, potatoes and herbs to high heat, allow to boil then reduce heat to medium and cook, covered, for 30 minutes
Heat saute pan to medium high and add 1c stock, olive oil, and sausages, let boil then reduce to medium
Cook sausages until liquid evaporates and sausages are browned, about 10 minutes
Remove sausages, cool
In same pan add onion, garlic and pepper and saute for about 5 minutes, onions should be golden and they should have absorbed some flavor from the sausages
Remove from heat and add the flour to the onion mix and stir to coat
Add corn to stock and cook for 5 minutes
Add milk to stock and cook another 5 minutes
Add all additional ingredients and cook for an additional 10-15 minutes, until theickened
This soup was super yummy. I think it is more appropriate for the cooler seasons, but the vibrant pepper and sausage and sweet corn were a yummy combo. It was a nice accompaniment to the turkey burgers, so I think I may freeze some of this to have the same meal again.
Great looking soup Lauren! Nice banister too ;)
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