Happy St. Paddy's Day

Back in the day, when I was going to be a nun (quit laughing, it's true, I really did want to), I was fascinated by St. Patrick.

Now? Well, I am wearing green and I married a guy that was half-Scot, half-Irish and there's green on at least two tattoos...

I'm not making cabbage for supper - I have dinosaur kale and leeks and so I'm making magic soup.

What is magic soup, you ask? It's soup that tastes amazing on day one and better on day two, is easy, yummy, and that EVERYONE here wants. And it's better than the zuppa toscana at the Olive Garden

Magic Soup

1 lb. bacon, cooked and drained
1 lb. hot italian sausage, cooked and drained
2 T. butter
1 onion (or in my case 1 leek), chopped
5 potatoes, washed and sliced thin
4 c. chicken stock
1 bunch kale or collards or spinach or dinosaur kale or something green, washed and well-cleaned and chopped
salt
pepper
1-2 c. fat free half and half

So, after you've cooked the meat, cooked the onion in a stockpot in the butter. Once it's sweated out some, add your stock and your potatoes and cook until the potatoes are tender. How long this takes really depends on how thin your potatoes are cut. I have a new mandolin, so my potatoes are REALLY thin because it still amuses me. Once the potatoes are tender, put the meat in the pot. Cook 10 minutes. Turn off the heat. Then add your greens, salt and pepper and stir. Then you add your half and half. Sometimes it takes a lot to look right, sometimes it doesn't. The soup should look like it has cream in it, but no like a Cream of Some Random Vegetable soup.

Oh, I also throw a little crushed pepper in there, because we like the hotness.

*nods happily*

Oh, yeah. Still not a nun.