DARCI HANNAH: A couple of weeks ago John and I had all our kids home for a lovely October weekend visit. This was a very special event indeed, since our oldest son, daughter-in-law, and grandson live outside of Seattle, WA, and our middle son and his fiancé live outside of Charlotte, NC. We feel especially blessed to have our youngest son and his girlfriend in the area, but like us, he misses his older brothers. So, when everyone decided to come home for a fall visit, it was a cause for celebration.
One of the highlights of the visit was when Seattle Jim and Carolina Cayce decided to get in the kitchen together to make a cozy, belly-warming pot of creamy sausage potato soup. It was Cayce’s idea to make the soup. I had a recipe, and Cayce had a version that she’d committed to memory. We decided to combine our efforts for the perfect, yummy fall meal.
Now, I should tell you that our oldest son, Seattle Jim is an outstanding amateur cook and is known for executing complicated recipes that often take days to make. His work in the kitchen is so inspiring that I even turned him into a character in my upcoming release: A TOAST TO AGATHA CHRISTIE’S GHOST. Jim is a software engineer and really puts those engineering skills to the test in the kitchen.
Carolina Cayce, my future daughter-in-law, is also a fabulous cook. Her background is in hospitality, catering, and sales, and she really has a gift for selecting outstanding flavor profiles, creating unique cocktails and dishes, and making delicious meals with a southern flare. She likes to say she cooks from the heart!
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| Seattle Jim and Carolina Cayce in the kitchen with Finley! |
So, when these two very different cooks from opposite sides of the country got together, I was loving every minute of it! Cayce took the lead while Jim was her sous chef. The two worked so well together in the kitchen that I will demand an encore at Thanksgiving. Although Jim, with his technical expertise, did question Cayce’s methods a time or two, Cayce always had the perfect reply. “Jim, I cook from the heart!” End of story! Below is my recipe for Creamy Sausage Potato Soup with an addendum for Cayce’s Method, which brought the soup to another, creamier level. Choose your own adventure and enjoy!
Creamy Sausage Potato Soup
Prep time: 20 minutes. Cook time: 40 minutes. Makes 8 servings.
(This recipe uses an emersion blender. See *Cayce’s Method for another option.)
Ingredients:
3 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes.
1 package Italian sausage, (about 1 pound) cooked, sliced, and quartered.
1 pound bacon, cooked and chopped (1 cup for soup, plus more for garnish)
32 oz. chicken broth
2 tbs butter
1 large onion, diced small
4 cloves garlic, minced
4 cups chopped kale or Swiss chard
2 cups heavy whipping cream
Salt and pepper to taste
Shredded cheddar cheese for garnish
Directions
Split the pound of bacon and cook the first half lightly. This will be chopped into half-inch pieces and put into soup. Cook the second batch until crispy. This will be crumbled for garnish. Cook sausage, cool, and chop into quarter-inch pieces.
Melt butter in the bottom of a large pot. Add onion and garlic and cook for 5 minutes, until soft and tender. Next add chicken broth and potatoes. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 10 minutes, or until potatoes are soft and tender.
Using a slotted spoon, remove half the potatoes to another pot. Add a cup of the hot liquid. Using an emersion blender, blend the potatoes until thick and creamy. Add the blended potatoes to the larger pot and continue to simmer. Add the sausage, bacon, and the 2 cups of heavy cream. Continue to simmer for 10 minutes, until the bacon and sausage are warmed through.
Add the chopped kale. Cover the pot and turn off the heat. Let simmer for 5 minutes, or until the kale has softened. Stir the pot, then serve immediately. Garnish with shredded cheese and crumbled bacon!
*Cayce’s Method: As Cayce told Jim while cooking, she cooks from the heart, and the heart requires more ingredients! Cayce’s method for this potato soup was to leave all the potatoes in the pot and make a rue to thicken the soup instead. She also added some lovely, diced carrots and celery to the mix. The carrots and celery were added to the pot with the rest of the aromatics, and sautéed in butter before the potatoes went in. Omit the cream. The cream comes in later, as you will see.
For Cayce’s rue:
1 stick butter
½ cup flour
4 cups whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
Salt and pepper to taste
Method: Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat.
Add the flour and stir until a thick paste is formed. Slowly add milk while stirring continuously.
Once rue is thickened, add cream. Season to taste.
Once the potatoes in the soup pot are tender, add the sausage and bacon. Next, slowly stir in the rue. Cook over medium heat until the soup is thickened. Add the chopped kale and cover the pot with a lid. Turn off the heat and let soup stand for five minutes. Serve immediately. Garnish with shredded cheese and bacon.
You can print a copy of the recipe HERE!
*To enter to win a copy of Murder at the Christmas Cookie Bake-Off let me know what your favorite fall soup is in the comments below.
Darci Hannah is the bestselling author of the Beacon Bakeshop Mystery Series, the Food & Spirits Mystery Series, the Very Cherry Mystery Series, and two works of historical fiction, The Exile of Sara Stevenson, and The Angel of Blythe Hall. Darci grew up in the Midwest and currently lives in a small town in Michigan with her husband and two dogs. Darci is a lifelong lover of the Great Lakes, a natural wonder that inspires many of her stories. Passionate about family, dogs, food, baking, history, books, lighthouses, laughter, good conversations, coffee, and the paranormal, Darci feels especially blessed to have found a way to combine her interests in the stories she writes. It brings her great joy to be able to share them with you.
Connect with Darci at www.darcihannah.com
Instagram: @authordarcihannah
Facebook: @Author Darci Hannah
Murder at the Campfire Cookout
By Darci Hannah
Book #7 in the Beacon Bakeshop Mystery Series
ORDER YOUR COPY TODAY!When Lindsey Bakewell leaves behind her lighthouse bakeshop, her boyfriend, Rory, and her Newfoundland dog, Wellington, for a glamping trip with her mother in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, the bears leave them alone—but a killer doesn’t. . .
Converting the old Beacon Point lighthouse into a bakery is as adventurous as Lindsey cares to get. Her mother, Ellie, a former 80s fashion model, likes her creature comforts even more—until she sees a business opportunity for her Beacon Harbor fashion boutique when she’s invited by the Mitten Kittens Glamping Club on a woodsy getaway.
Far from roughing it, the ladies will be warm and cozy in chic vintage campers. Ellie insists Lindsey come along to win the campfire cookout contest. Campfire cooking has come a long way from bacon and beans. Soon Lindsey is making pizza, berry cobbler, and gooey Carmelita camping bars.
But the festive spirit is soon dampened when a body is found in Ellie’s camper. It seems like an accidental death until everyone’s tires are slashed and it’s clear the glampsite has become a crime scene. With no cell service to call for help, it’s up to Lindsey to smoke out the killer around the campfire . . .
Because no one is out of the woods yet.
A Spirited Supper at Dundoon Castle
By Darci Hannah
Book #2 in the Food & Spirits Mystery Series
ORDER YOUR COPY TODAY!
When chef Bridget “Bunny” MacBride got a role on the reality show Food & Spirits, she thought “spirits” meant cocktails. Instead, she’s cooking up dinners meant to tempt the departed to appear. And to her surprise, she’s discovered abilities to connect with the beyond—and crack murder cases . . .
Now that Bunny’s entrées come with a side of the Other Side, it comes in handy to have a grandma who’s friendly with the elderly owners of a haunted Scottish castle. During Bunny’s childhood she heard all about Dundoon’s bloody history and the “ghostly piper” who roamed the grounds—and soon she’ll be visiting the ancient place with her ghost hunter and psychic co-stars. The annual bagpipe competition in the late piper’s honor will make for some good footage as well.
After Bunny serves a feast fit for a 17th century king, including lamb chops with plenty of fresh herbs, she heads outdoors for the ghost hunt. But in the dark, dense fog, someone fatally plunges from the clifftop over the loch. The sound that follows is a mournful, otherworldly bagpipe . . . and once the body of another perished piper is retrieved, Bunny is determined to solve this Highlands homicide—and prevent a killer from getting off scot-free . . .
COMING FEBRUARY 23, 2027
A TOAST TO AGATHA CHRISTIE’S GHOST
By Darci Hannah
Book #3 in the Food & Spirits Mystery Series
ORDER YOUR COPY TODAY!
Chef Bunny MacBride has gotten roped into a ghost-hunting reality show called Food & Spirits, creating dishes to whet the appetites of apparitions. Along the way, she’s discovered she has some supernatural gifts of her own—and an eerie knack for solving murders…
The cast and crew are on Burgh Island, at a restored Art Deco hotel that boasts Agatha Christie as its most famous guest—and now its most famous ghost. They’re filming at a murder-mystery weekend, and Bunny expects it to be more kooky than spooky. But she’s excited to meet the renowned resident chef and delighted to run into her Granny Mac playing the role of Miss Marple. As a bonus, her romance with costar Brett continues to simmer.
The downside is dealing with arrogant guests like Buckley Thorne, who sends back her beetroot salad and demands whipped cream for her peach Melba. Then the show’s phony psychic, Giff, insists on playing Poirot, complete with an absurdly bad accent. When it turns out the victim role is assigned to Buckley Thorne, she feels a touch of satisfaction—until she realizes he’s doing too good a job of playing dead . . .
Shocked to learn Buckley’s true identity, Bunny has to change course once again from cook to crime-solver. She’d sensed an undercurrent of drama at the dead man’s table—and with help from the spirit of the world’s greatest mystery writer, she’s looking closely at the victim’s handsome son, much-younger wife, and elegant circle of friends to conjure up a solution . . .
