Spicy Sweet Potato and Smoked Sausage Soup

Since I’ve been off of dairy to see if it’ll help ease my little guy’s tummy pains, I’ve been searching for new recipes that don’t use milk or cheese, since many of my staple menu items use these ingredients.  I tried this recipe a little while ago for the first time and really loved it, so I thought I would share it with you all, with a few minor modifications that I’ve made to suit our personal taste.  I got this recipe from a recipes program that I got for Christmas from my brother’s girlfriend called MasterCook Deluxe, in the Mealtime cookbook, recipe coutesy of The Florida Department of Agriculture. 

8 ounces smoked sausage, diced
1/2 cup onion, diced
1/2 cup celery, diced
1 tablespoon jalapeño pepper, minced (I used a whole jalapeño pepper)
3 cups sweet potatoes, peeled and large-diced
2 tablespoons flour
3 cups chicken stock (I used 6 cups)
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
Green onions, garnish

1. Sauté sausage in a large sauce pan for 5 minutes over medium heat.  I used local Pioneer Meats smoked all pork farmer’s sausage (the best sausage in the world) that comes in packages of approximately 800 grams (1 3/4 pounds or 28 ounces).  The last time I made this, I used one whole link which would be about 14 ounces instead of the 8 ounces called for by the recipe and it was a little too much meat, so this time I did more like 10 ounces.  I just sliced it as opposed to dicing it.

 

2. Add vegetables and continue to sauté for an additional 5 minutes. 

 
I cut up the celery and onions quite small, and if you can see on the picture, my trick for cutting onions is to cut the onion in half and then in slices so that the layers are like a rainbow and then cut around the curve so that the layers work to your advantage to create nice small pieces with less cutting. 

 
For the sweet potato, I hate cutting these because they are quite dense and hard, sort of like trying to cut a huge carrot, but I have found that it helps to cut lengthwise with the grain.  I cut the sweet potato into bite-size pieces approximately 2 cm cubed (1/2 to 3/4 inches).  Also, the recipe calls for 1 tablespoon jalapeño pepper, but I found this wasn’t spicy enough, so I just did the whole pepper this time. 

 

3. Add flour and cook for 2 more minutes.  The first time I tried this, I thought it was really weird to add flour to vegetables without using any water or butter or something, but it actually works quite well. 

 

4. Add stock, salt and pepper and stir until smooth.  Since the soup was quite thick the first time, my husband Joe requested that I use more broth, because a lot of the broth seemed to cook out when cooking the sweet potatoe, so this time I used 6 cups of broth instead of 3, using 6 teaspoons of chicken OXO with 6 cups of hot water.  This soup would probably taste quite different if you used actual chicken stock as opposed to OXO, but I like it this way.

 

5. Simmer for 20 minutes until potatoes are soft. Garnish with green onions.  I left out the green onions mostly because I didn’t have any, but also because it seemed unnecessary to me. 

 

So there you go!  I really enjoyed this recipe and I think you’d like it – so give it a try!

Justice's Nicknames

In the same way I rarely ever call Joe “Joe” – it’s usually Honey, Lover , Babe, etc. – so do I also seem to rarely call Justice by his actual name.  Here are a few of the nicknames we’ve come up with so far – and I’m sure this list will continue to grow… 

• Buddy
• Little Man
• Mister
• Little Houdini – the Great Escape Artist (from his swaddle)
• Sir Pukealot
• Sweetie
• Cutie
• The Crown Prince

Happy 1 Month Justice!

Today Justice is 1 month old!!  So far he is a pretty good belcher, LOVES to eat, poops and pukes quite regularly, enjoys peeing on himself while having his diaper changed, has a rather ticklish spot on the roll on the back of his neck, is growing too fast, and has tremendous amounts of gas!  Sounds like a pretty successful baby to me!    He really likes to make noise – so far we have compared him to a monkey, a horse and a pig.    Most of his squeals and grunts seem to be gas-induced, so when he doesn’t have gas, then he’s quietly content.  His loudest shrieks and cries that sound like the world is coming to an end usually occur when he’s really hungry.    It’s at these times that he will also eat like a panicked starved little man who thinks this is the last meal he’ll ever get – lol.  He loves to fall asleep on his nursing pillow, is mostly enjoying his first week with the soother, and usually goes to sleep in his crib quite well!  While he still likes to eat every two hours some days, I am very thankful that he usually goes three or four hours in between feedings during the night.  All this AND he just happens to be the cutest thing you’ve ever seen!  I love my son!