There are few things more pleasing than coming home from work on a rainy day to a sparkling clean kitchen, a happy dog, and the warm, inviting aroma of freshly made soup. When your darling is waiting with a kiss, well, that’s just the icing on the already perfect cake.

S took a sick day yesterday, but that didn’t stop him from having dinner ready and waiting for me when I got home. No relying on a lazy-day dinner last night! Instead, here’s what we ate:

Soup, soup, a tasty soup…!

S veganized this recipe for Potato Soup with Kale and Chorizo, a hearty concoction overflowing with tender kale and buttery, melt-in-your-mouth potatoes. It was steaming hot, a perfect weapon to combat our chilly apartment. (Let’s just say that our dryer broke at the most inopportune time imaginable – namely, right after S washed a load of sheets. They didn’t fit on my drying rack, so he had to rig up makeshift drying apparatuses in front of open windows… on a 45˚ day. Brrr.)

Our only complaint about the soup was that it was overly salty for our tastes. S learned a lesson from that little problem, though – always buy sodium-free or low-sodium bouillon so you can control the salt level of your soup. (He also learned to check the damn pantry before buying bouillon, because I keep it well stocked, but that’s another lesson entirely.) I’ll happily take an overly salty soup, though, if it means that someone else cooked it for me!

What do you like to come home to on a cold day?