Carmelized Onion Sausage Lentil Soup

Or "There's Nothing in the House for Dinner Soup." That quite clearly explains this soup's origins. I have a surplus of green lentils sitting in my pantry, and Brian isn't a big lentil fan, so I try to make them for solo meals. I had planned on eating an apple and almond butter for dinner, but I ate that at 4pm and to no one's surprise, I was hungry again not long after that. In rummaging through my fridge and pantry, this soup was born.

Carmelized Onion Sausage Lentil Soup
Inspired by Mark Bittman's 7 Ways to Make Lentil Soup

3/4 - 1 lb crumbled sausage*
2 yellow onions, sliced into half moons.
1 c. french green lentils
1 bay leaf
1 tsp cumin
6-8 cups chicken stock**
Creme fraiche or sour cream -yes, I also had homemade creme fraiche in the house. 

*I used a homemade pork sausage with garlic and herbs. Don't be impressed. It's ground pork mixed with garlic and herbs. 

**6 cups will get you more of a stew, 8 cups will get you more of a soup. Go figure.

Saute the sausage in a large, heavy soup pot until browned and crispy. I found I needed to add a little canola oil to help the browning along. Remove the sausage and add a just enough water to scrape up the browned bits on the bottom of the pan, then add the onions.These you can cook until they're golden brown, or like, if you have a baby who won't sleep and you constantly have to check on him, until they're very, very, very dark brown. We'll call them "charred." They were still delicious. When the onions are done to your liking, add the lentils, bay leaf, cumin, chicken stock and sausage. Simmer half an hour or so, until the lentils are soft but not falling apart. Top individual servings with creme fraiche or sour cream, or at the very least, a tiny bit of lemon juice. You want something acidic to break through the dark heavy flavors of the onions and sausage. My soup looked like sludge, so I'm sparing you a picture, but it was incredibly delicious sludge.

Now I have to find recipes to use the rest of the lentils in the pantry...

Caleb, 2 Months

I had this post written and ready to go, and forgot about it. Such is life with a baby! 

This month Caleb started sleeping for longer stretches, smiling and babbling and took his first flight! I still don't have him on a specific schedule- I never know how long he's going to sleep at night and I'm loath to wake him up if he's dead asleep. I attempt to keep his first night feeding between 10 and 11, but sometimes that just doesn't happen. 

Mom and Baby at 8 weeks old.

When Caleb's awake, he's AWAKE. In constant motion.

When it hit 45 degrees, we took a walk to the library.

On Caleb's 8 week birthday we left him with Nana and Papaw Whale and went out with Brian's brother and his wife. Date night!

Nana Sigmon caught this gorgeous picture while we were in North Carolina. Caleb's smile is the best.

Slow Cooker BBQ Chicken

I can't believe I haven't posted this recipe yet. One of the few recipes I can truly take credit for creating and it's finally making an appearance on the blog. Maybe because it's not very photogenic? Maybe because it's not very "foodie?" Don't judge. This chicken is delicious and no one cares if you take a night off from kale. It makes dinner a cinch: throw it in the slow cooker, ask your husband to make cornbread and toss some veggies together for a simple, delicious meal.

BBQ Chicken Thighs

6 bone-in, skinless chicken thighs*

Sauce:
1/2 bottle bbq sauce - whatever you like
1/4 c mustard
1/4 c honey
dash hot sauce
2 tsp worcestershire sauce
If you like it spicy, toss in a couple chipotles in adobo sauce

Salt and pepper the chicken, mix together the sauce and throw it in the slow cooker for 8 hours or so on low. The chicken will be falling off the bone when it's ready. We like it best with cornbread.

*You can absolutely use thighs with the skin on, but in this recipe I find it creates a lot of fat in the sauce.

6 Weeks Old: Milestones

Well, Caleb turned 8 weeks old last week, but we'll go ahead and post this for posterity. 

We're really seeing milestones at the 6 week mark.

First, we're in size two diapers! I noticed that the size ones were really tight on him so I pulled a size two from our stash (thank you baby showers!!) and tried it on: success! A well fitting diaper again!

Not too big for snuggles, thank goodness!

That leads to milestone number two -- the larger diapers are noticeably more absorbent, therefore Caleb has started sleeping five hours in a stretch at night! For the past three nights he's slept five hours, eaten and then slept for four hours.

Looking so big in the car seat.

And finally, we've started using our awesome cloth diapers -- milestone number three. We've had a couple leaks but we're figuring out how to avoid those and I'm super happy with our cloth diapers for the twelve hours we've been using them. He's adorable in them and I'm thrilled with how few disposables we're using now.

Cloth diaper cuteness. If I thought he filled out the 0-3 mo clothes before, the diapers certainly add extra bulk!