#12DaysofHygge - Day 5: Tuesday Night Supper + Recipe for White Bean & Kale Soup with Sausage • West Coast City Girl

One of things that makes me feel most hygge is a small dinner party, eating family style with favourite people.

I have been eating at Karen Dar Woon’s 1920’s oak table since I was 16 or 17 years old. She was one of my dance moms (referred to as Ballet Mom in this post) and is a really lovely friend to me and my own mum. Karen used to be a paper sales rep, and decided to start making biscotti. (Which was very tasty!) Her Biscotti Queen business took off and going through the BCIT Venture Development program, she eventually turned it into Your Secret Chef, a successful private chef and catering company.

She is certified up the wazoo, teaches food safety and cooking courses, is super passionate about volunteering in her community, and is a member of Les Dames d’Escoffier BC. She is also just what my friend Steve would call ‘good people’. Needless to say, I love going to Karen and her husband Hans’ downtown apartment for dinner – it is a very hygge home.

The food is always fantastic and the company is always good. Karen and Hans travel a lot, so there are always ingredients brought back from wherever they’ve just been. The pantry and fridge are also stocked with food stuffs that Karen has made herself – jams, stocks, kombucha, pickled whatever. One day, I will remember to get her ketchup recipe. It’s to die for.

Monday Night Supper is an event in this house, but this happened to be Tuesday Night Supper due to scheduling. But I have been to a Monday Night Supper where I was one of ten people. (It was the best dinner party I’d been to. Very lively.) This time it was just the girls with me, Karen, and Karen’s daughter, Erin, who I used to dance with. (She’s a #westcoastcitygirl who I will have to get a guest post from very soon as she has been pretty much everywhere in Asia…)

Because having people over is common occurrence in this home, cooking is always a communal process, with everyone pitching in and chatting around the gigantic kitchen island or at the table with a glass of wine or a cocktail hand. When I asked Karen if she’d contribute a recipe to the #12DaysofHygge, she said “Sure, and why don’t you come make it with me!”

And so we made a White Bean and Kale Soup with Sausage and some biscuits. It was hearty and delicious and went very well with the Salt Spring Vineyards Pinot Noir that I’d brought (my wine club shipment came in last month – hooray!) I’m looking forward to making it for the Brit. It’s definitely a meal suited to these cold winter nights that have come to stay for a while.

Click HERE to download the recipe! Happy Tuesday!