As usual, fall has absolutely flown by, and somehow Thanksgiving completely snuck up on me! Happily I at least found the time to make my chipotle cranberry sauce and brussels sprouts in time for the family dinner. I’ve only been making them for a few years, but it already feels like it wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without them! After stuffing ourselves on the holiday itself, Andy had to work Friday, while I’d had plans to get an early start for a short hike in the morning. After a terrible night’s sleep (probably due to the huge amount of food my body was struggling to digest!) I decided to take it easy for the morning, burrowed into a nest of blankets, knitting, and books the couch. Saturday, Andy and I packed up and headed east, through the recently snow-dusted mountains. The frosted hills and marshmallowy trees made me itch to run home and dig out my snowshoes. With a second Thanksgiving to celebrate in Wenatchee, there wasn’t time on this trip, but fingers crossed for a good snowy adventure soon!
Read moreFall Sausage Minestrone
You may recall that one of the items from my fall fun list was "Make soup. So much soup. All the soup. Possibly get tired of soup." There was one soup in particular I was looking forward to making - Fall Sausage Minestrone. I found the recipe for this soup in Dishing Up Washington, a cookbook I was given as a Christmas gift a few years ago. Every recipe I've tried from it so far has become an immediate favorite, and this soup is no exception.
I must have made three or four batches of this soup last year. This was quite an achievement considering I refuse to make it with anything but elusive and very seasonal chanterelles. To me this soup is the perfect combination of fall flavors: the squash, mushrooms, and the sausage combine to make a rich, earthy, hearty soup that I can't get enough of. We'll see how many times make it this year - so far I'm only on batch number 1!
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