So I'm giving props to SB, because he's a great cook and made this amazing Tuscan Vegetable Stew last week. He may one day make a written appearance on this here space, though I doubt he'll commit to a fully in-focus image of himself, but one can always hope. For now we'll show his cooking creations.
Last week, while we actually HAD weather, drizzling rain and colder Cali temperatures he decided to make a stew. This recipe was from a March 2013 issue of Bon Appetit it's called Italian Vegetable Stew. The only change we made is adding in Spicy Italian Chicken Sausages from Whole Foods (SB doesn't eat pork or beef, so this is a great alternative). We wanted a little more flavor and meat in our stew, however on it's own this stew would still be really flavorful. We removed the casing from the sausage, roughly chop them into bit size pieces, then brown them in the pot your using for the stew (one day that pot will be a Le Creuset or Staub, for now we use All-Clad). Remove the sausage and start in on the rest of veggies as specified in the recipe in the link above. Once all the ingredients are stewing we added the sausage back in and let them cook a little more and fully flavor the stew.
The Bon Appetit recipe is from Brandon Jew of Bar Agricole. Ironically I tried to go to Bar Agricole when I was last in San Francisco, but got there too early and it wasn't open. But if this recipe is any indication of his food there, I'm am going to make sure I stop in next time we visit San Francisco. Enjoy this stew on a cold afternoon.