Tom's Make-It-Up Soup
Brown 1/2 lb bacon, chop up
Brown 1 lb bulk sausage, crumble up (Keep doing this in the same pot)
Brown 1 chopped onion (Minus the chopped onion your 18-month old steals off the chopping board [note 1])
Toss in a package fresh chopped mushrooms
Toss in some chopped carrots
Toss in some chopped celery
Toss in 1 package black beans, soaked for a few hours (or use those canned ones)
Now we need liquid:
Add in (almost all) 1 bottle good beer, the rest goes in the cook
Water to cover everything, more if you like broth
About 1/2 cup ketchup
About 3 tbsp vinegar (just eyeball it, like all the other measurements)
About 1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp liquid smoke
As much garlic as you can stand
Simmer for as long as you can take it without drooling all over yourself. Serve with fresh cornbread and enjoy the lack of turkey!
Why? My requirements for dinner were 3-fold:
1) NO MORE TURKEY
2) Use whatever else is on hand
3) Make it a soup because it is so much cooler today. Sorry my Toledo friends, but we have a cooling trend here. It only reached 72 today.
[note 1]: Yes, the toddler did grab fresh chopped onion right off the board. Being the 'learn by experience' Dad that I am, I let her go. Damn kid chowed it all down and came back for more!
I'll let you know soon how it turned out, I'm drooling on the keyboard from the smell...
