Sunday thoughts

This weekend Kev and I made our favorite winter soup. It's a root vegetable stew with kale and slab bacon. He found the recipe in New York magazine a few years ago, and it has become one of the few things I look forward to when thinking about the end of warm weather. I love that we make it in a giant stockpot and stir it using a long handled wooden spoon. Like a witch's brew, but hearty and healthy.

Below, you see the 2nd step. After the slab bacon has been rendered in olive oil, in go the leeks, onions, and chili flakes. At this point the kitchen is already filled with delicious smells.

We went to the natural foods store by his house to get our ingredients. The apples below are organic, as is all the produce there.

Here we've complete the last step, adding the kale to the pot once the root vegetables have softened a bit. At this point I was dancing around with impatience.

Before leaving to his place for the weekend, Kevin and I packed two of these Chinese apple pears. My parents had bought a box of these juicy, perfectly sweet, expensive fruit and we didn't want to miss out.