Sausage Soup.

Thanksgiving and Christmas Holidays both feature the same delicious menu at our home. This is a menu that has not changed in my lifetime and for as long as I can remember has been prepared by my father Byron Reppert (age 86). Dad is a WW II marine, member of Mechanicsburg’s Boro Council for 16 years and mayor of the town for 4 years. He is one of our biggest supporters in any endeavor we take on. About 3 years ago Dad felt the big family meal might be too much for him to prepare by himself so I apprenticed Thanksgiving Dinner. Our festivities begin on the eve of the Holiday with our traditional Sausage Soup. A prepare ahead meal that can be simmering until all members of the family have arrived. To make this hearty soup use chopped Smoked Sausage cooked in boiling water. Add onion and potatoes to the pot, just before serving add some milk, which gives the soup a creamy color and helps to cool the fat. We have always found the flavor of the smoked sausage offers enough seasoning to this soup. The Senior member of our family usually muses that they used to call this “poor man’s soup but with the price of sausage these days you can’t call it that anymore”. The annual tale continues with “and when we were really poor we made the soup with pretzels instead”. Tomorrow we will have another of Dad's family recipes, his famous potato filling. Yum!