Potato, Leek, & Spicy Sausage Soup

Last week, after record heat for March, we had a rainy day in Fort Collins. We didn't really have a crazy snowy winter, and I'll be honest - I didn't make too many hot, comforting meals this time around. I normally like to make a few hot dinners a week, casseroles, lots of roasted meats, baked potatoes, soups, chili.
This rainy day inspired me to make soup. I took some chicken stock that I froze a month ago (from that ONE roasted chicken I made), thawed it out right in the crock pot around 7:30am on the low setting. I didn't have much time that morning to prepare and add the vegetables to the crock pot as I intended to, so I added some Worcestershire, Cholula, salt & pepper, thyme and sage to the stock and left for work.
When I got back at 5:00pm, the beautiful smell of that stock was permeating through my house. I turned the crock pot to HOT and quickly peeled & chopped up Yukon gold potatoes and red potatoes and threw them into the stock. I had some spicy ground pork in the fridge, so I browned it and drained the fat into a separate bowl. Chopped up 3 leeks (then rinsed the hell out of them, that grit is nasty), and chopped up a red onion. Sauteed the leeks and onions until soft in a little bit of the pork fat until browned, then added them to the stock.
The stock turned into a really savory liquid and got those potatoes soft enough after 2 hours. Right before serving it at about 7:30pm, I added about a half cup of milk, and a little more thyme and sage to bring out more of that herby flavor.
Topped with a sprinkle of freshly minced green onion on top, this soup was so good. I had a toasted thin slice of sourdough on the side to have a little crunch with my meal. The spicy sausage with the thyme and sage and buttery Yukon golds really made the dish work! That warm balance of flavor was so comforting on that chilly day.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 quarts chicken stock
3 medium Yukon gold potatoes
3 medium red potatoes
1 T Worcestershire
1 T hot sauce (I like Cholula)
1/2 c. milk
1 lb. spicy pork sausage
3 large leeks
1 medium red onion
1 T thyme, separated
1 T sage, separated
salt & pepper

I ate it for lunch the next day, dinner the night after that, and lunch the day after that. Next winter (ok, even this summer), I'm going to have to make this again.

If breakfast was a human, I'd be a stalker.

I love breakfast and brunch on the weekends so much. Saturday and Sunday mornings are my favorite time of the week. Call me crazy: I sometimes obsess about it before I go to bed on Friday. Once in awhile you'll even see me at the grocery store for a special trip to refill my fridge with eggs on Friday night when everyone else is wining and dining and shaking their groove thang (I save that for Saturday). To get me through a tough workweek, I daydream of cheesy Denver omelettes, hash browns, warm tortillas, eggs Benedict, crepes....I better stop there or my extremeties will get numb with joy, I have just a bit more typing to do.

For Ryan and me this morning, it was scrambled eggs, canadian bacon, and home fried potatoes. I cracked three eggs into a separate bowl, added a dash of milk, many dashes of Cholula, salt & pepper, and whisked away with a fork. Oh Cholula, I put that s#!t in everything. Then it’s a slow scramble for the eggs until light and fluffy, with a generous melty topping of colby jack cheese. I slapped a few slices of canadian bacon onto a hot grill pan and they were crispy and carmelized within just a minute.


My favorite part of this morning's breakfast was the hearty home fries. I peeled and chopped three red potatoes, half a zucchini, half a white onion, half an orange pepper - cut roughly the same size. I sauteed them in olive oil and half a tablespoon of butter, and salt and pepper of course, until they got tender and slightly crisp.

To accompany the meal, I treated myself to a Snow Capped Rocky from Human Bean. That’s their white chocolate mocha. SO divine. Normally on weekdays, it’s black coffee or Americanos for me.

I know every weekend can’t be like a holiday at home. Real life kicks in, with running errands I can’t do through the week, waking up early to exercise, getting the dogs washed, needing to eat up the yogurt before it goes bad. But when I have time, it's breakfast indulgence in this house.