Recipe: Sausage and Potato Soup with Green Beans

This is not a very flattering picture, but I was lazy and this is just for documentation purposes.  =P  The shine on the soup makes it look oily in the photo, but it really isn't.  Our kitchen just has bad lighting for pictures.  I wanted to keep track of the basics for this soup, though, because again, Al liked it!  The goal for this was to use up a bunch of vegetables that I had lying around.

Ingredients:

• 4 shallots - diced
• ~3 lb. russet potatoes - diced
• ~1 lb.. green beans - trimmed, cut into 1-2 in. pieces
• leaves from around 8 sprigs of fresh thyme
• ~ 1 tbsp. fresh rosemary
• 28 oz. can petite diced tomatoes
• 4 cups low sodium chicken broth
• 1.25 lb. hot Italian turkey sausage

Directions:

1. Heat a splash of olive oil in a hot non-stick pan and saute until the shallots become translucent and begin to brown a little.
2. Add a little more olive oil and the potatoes.  Season with some salt and pepper and cook until potatoes begin to brown and are cooked through.
3. Add fresh thyme and rosemary leaves (I just used a bunch from my garden - as many thyme leaves as I could pull before I got annoyed, and rosemary leaves from a 6-in. stem)
4. Add green beans and cook for a few minutes.
5. Transfer all the vegetables to a large pot.  Add the diced tomatoes and chicken broth and bring to a boil, then simmer on low.
6. Cook turkey sausage in the same non-stick pan from the vegetables - crumbling it into chunks with the back of the spoon.  Drain the fat and then add to the soup.

Once the soup sat over night, the starches from the potatoes thickened it up a little and it was very yummy!

Recipe: Cantaloupe and Cucumber Salad with White Wine Vinaigrette

Two events led to the creation of this dish: I had a delicious Summer Melon Salad at Pizza Antica last week, and then I saw cantaloupes on sale for 3 for a dollar.  It was meant to be!  I've already made this salad twice this week because Al liked it so much.

Ingredients:

• spinach/arugula mix
• 1 cantaloupe - cut into chunks
• 1 cucumber - cut into chunks
• 1 shallot (1/2 finely sliced, the other half diced)
• 1 tbsp. fresh mint leaves - finely chopped
• 1 avocado - sliced

For the vinaigrette:

• ~2 tbsp. white wine vinegar
• ~1 tbsp. dijon mustard
• ~1/4 cup olive oil
• freshly cracked black pepper

Directions:

1. In a measuring cup, let the diced shallots sit in about 2 tbsp. of white wine vinegar (add for to cover if needed).  While the shallots macerate in the vinegar, chop the cantaloupe, cucumber, the other half of the shallot, and mint.  Toss them all together in a large bowl.
2. Add 1tbsp. dijon mustard to the measuring cup with shallots and vinegar, then add olive oil until the mixture is 1/2 a cup.    Whisk everything together and season with freshly cracked black pepper.
3. Slice an avocado and toss with cantaloupe and cucumber mixture.
4. Toss spinach and arugula mix with just a little dressing (enough to slightly coat) and distribute to plates.  Pour the rest of the dressing over the cantaloupes and cucumbers and toss.  Mound on top of the spinach and arugula mix.