Sausage and Lentil Soup

Our family looks forward to cold weather in that it gives us the opportunity to savor and appreciate more soups than we eat in warm weather. One of our favorites that Karen prepared this week is described here in case you'd like to try it too. This soup would not be half as good without the spicy sausage, so if you don't include it because you don't like spicy food, it's not my fault if the soup is not a hit.

1 pound Hot Italian Sausage Links
1 pound carrots, peeled and cut in small pieces
1 large onion, chopped
1-1/4 pound fennel bulb trimmed & cut into 1" pieces
4 large garlic cloves
1 pound lentils, rinsed
6 cups water
4 cups chicken broth
1 can (28 oz) diced tomatoes in juice
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp thyme
3/4 tsp salt

Prick sausages many times with fork and cook in 8 quart saucepot over medium heat 10-15 minutes or until browned, turning occasionally. Remove to plate.

To drippings in saucepot add carrots, onion, and fennel. Cook vegetables over medium-high heat about 10 minutes or until tender and lightly browned, stirring frequently. Stir in garlic and cook 1 minute.

Add lentils, water, chicken broth, tomatoes with their juice, thyme, salt, and pepper; heat to boiling over high heat. Reduce heat and cover; simmer 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Cut sausages into 1/2" thick slices, and stir into soup. Heat to boiling. Cover and simmer 15-20 minutes longer or until lentils are tender, stirring occasionally. Skim off fat and discard.

Serve soup hot to grateful family.

Construction update #25

The big news this week has been that the siding is complete and all the windows are in. Once the garage doors are on, we'll be buttoned up pretty tight. We still have trim to apply around the windows and doors, but that may wait until spring after we paint the siding.

The view from the southwest offers proof that all the walls are covered back there too.

The steps to the second floor are finished, although admittedly not child-friendly. Those with vertigo need not venture to the second floor. Boy there's a lot of steps to fall down....

One more shot of the weathervane to help us celebrate the fact that we can easily tell which way the wind is blowing again. No, this picture was not taken with a telephoto lens.

The shot from the roof of the house.

Come on in and set a spell...

We did something this year that we have never done on Thanksgiving day... upholstering furniture! After a large and delicious early afternoon meal with the Galat family, most of the family members wandered off to find suitable napping arrangements. Our family sequestered ourselves to the office where we proceeded to apply new covers to the seats of our dining room chairs. Karen and Lily had removed the old upholstery the day before and cut the new fabric to size along with more batting to increase the loft on some of the chairs. We took the fabric, batting, bare seats, and tools to Karen's brother's house so we could redeem the time.

Here are a few of the finished seats waiting to be reunited with their chair frames.

We actually recovered chairs from two different sets. The blue stripe that you see above is what we had used to cover these older chairs back in 1996. We still had some of the original fabric, so the three chairs that we have left from that set got a facelift.

We originally recovered these chairs in 2000 after purchasing the dining set at an estate sale. Eight years later the fabric didn't look too bad until it was removed and the faded portions could be easily compared with the unfaded. Ewww... they were definitely due for a fresh touch. Which makes me wonder, is eight years a long time to go between upholstering jobs, or a short time? We realize we are always hopelessly out of style, but how long has furniture fabric lasted for other people? Thanks in advance for your comments....

I hope you weren't expecting to sit down...

Did I mention our new lights?

Those that visited our house at night in October will be happy to see that we have lights at the "office" entrance once again. Since the previous light was mounted on the soffit, when the soffit came down, the light came with it. Unfortunately, it took a few weeks to devise a solution and carry it out.

Since the attic above the garage is pretty accessible, and the walls in the garage allow one access to the brick once the drywall is removed, we decided it was a simple enough project to mount some new lights on the wall of the house. Running the wires through the attic to the garage wall was pretty straightforward, and my handy 19.2V Craftsman hammer drill bored 1/2" holes through the brick mortar like it was drilling through pine. After a few wire nuts and screw anchors, we had light!

You may have noticed the soffit was not finished when this photo was taken on November 7th. Rest assured it is finished now, and if we know you're coming over we'll leave the lights on for you...