Snowy evenings demand special considerations when planning a relaxing and nourishing meal. All day I was thinking: SOUP! I’ve never been much of a soup chef, but tonight I stumbled onto a combination of ingredients that made me wish that there was no limit to what one could eat at one meal.

Here’s what I did.

Sauté in olive oil –

One medium to large onion chopped
One whole garlic pod minced
One large stalk of celery chopped

Take two links of your favorite sausage – Italian, Cajun, chicken or whatever you like and strip the “skin” and make a bunch of penny sized balls out of it. Just take the skinned links and split them lengthwise, then cut across them in sections to make just the right amount for the little balls.

As the onion mix is working in the pot put the little sausage balls in and move it around until the onion is transparent and the sausage is warmed throughout. The sausage will probably turn white not brown.

Chop up a bunch of curly kale, wash it and put that in the pot and cover until it wilts. It will be about six cups of kale.

Keep stirring this along the way.

Throw in one can of diced tomatoes, one can of drained and washed white beans, two medium diced red potatoes, one large carrot diced, and enough chicken stock to cover it all. I used about 1 1/2 quarts.

Don’t put any seasoning in yet. Bring things to a boil and then simmer for 30 minutes. THEN taste. You’ll probably need some freshly ground Tellicherry black pepper and a dash of salt. Be careful of the salt. I used a teaspoon of Tabasco. I can’t do anything without a little Tabasco. Probably should have used more.

You should adjust anything that seems right to you. You never know: you could discover something exciting.

Simmer a while longer and then let it sit for a while.

Cornbread demands a presence at the table, of course.