Spicy Sausage Soup

It's snowing.  And icy.  And I'm so done with ice and snow.  Perfect weather for a big bowl of soup.  One child ate the soup, the other one refused it.  

Spicy Sausage Soup
Ingredients:
4 cloves garlic, minced

1 small onion, minced

1 small leek, diced roughly

2 large carrots, diced roughly

3 stalks celery, diced roughly

1 small zucchini, diced roughly

1 lb spicy sausage, formed into balls

2-3 tablespoons olive oil

8 cups chicken stock

1/4 lb pasta shells

Salt

Red pepper

Peccorino Romano cheese, shredded

Method:

Heat olive oil in large Dutch oven or stock pot over medium heat.

Add garlic, cook 2-3 minutes.

Brown sausage, remove.

Add remaining vegetables, cook for 5 minutes.

Add sausage.

Add chicken stock.  

Increase heat to high.  Bring to a boil.  

Add pasta.  Cook until al dente, then turn off.

 Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve with cheese.

Snow Day Sticky Toffee Pudding

Along with whipped cream straight from the can, this was awesome, easy, and great for a snow day.  Recipe here http://www.joyofbaking.com/StickyToffeePudding.html except I made them in individual molds.

Beef Wellington

So this totally isn't like me.  I wouldn't necessarily consider myself a Beef Wellington person, plus I'm not much for cooking that requires lots of steps and time.  But it was Christmas dinner, and, well, we had Beef Wellington.  It was incredibly awesome.  But very, very rich and I wish I had used a smaller tenderloin.

I started off with the Serious Eats recipe here - http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2012/12/the-ultimate-beef-wellington-recipe.html.  I made a few changes.  First, I substituted pâté de campagne for foie gras.  Added in cold, rather than seared.  Second, I chilled everything to uniform temperature before anything touched anything else.  Finally, my egg wash was yolks only.  Really actually very easy to make this.