Souper Freak

It’s September! Which means it’s fall, which means it’s time for lots and lots of soup!!

Here’s me kicking off the season:

I have been so busy that I’ve hardly been cooking lately. Not only is work busy with my “real job” — raising money for the ACLU — but I’m also busy raising money for the SAFE California Campaign, which will place an initiative on the 2012 ballot to replace California’s dysfunctional, expensive death penalty system with life without the possibility of parole. 

We (as well as me personally) believe that the continued use of the death penalty is one of the greatest on-going violations of human rights in the United States. The death penalty is discriminatory and is often used disproportionately against the poor, minorities and members of racial, ethnic and religious communities. It is imposed and carried out arbitrarily. The grave risk of wrongful execution cannot be overlooked. Nationally, 138 people have been released from death row after new evidence proved they were in fact innocent.

In addition, while we have spent literally billions of dollars on the death penalty in the last 30 years, the number of unsolved murder and rapes cases has increased dramatically. 46% of homicides and 56% of rapes remain unsolved every year in California. If passed, this initiative will direct that a portion of the money saved from replacing the death penalty be used to create the SAFE California Fund, a $100 million fund to increase the rate at which murder and rape cases are solved in California.

All of this is to say that it’s going to be a busy next 14 months! (You can help me out here with a small donation so that I can focus on chasing the big ones!) Somehow I’ll carve out some time to stir up some delicious soups.

So back to tonight, here’s the sausage - I substituted chicken andouille sausage for the Portuguese linguica sausage the recipe called for:

As I type this, Tyler and I are drinking wine while a pot of onions, garlic, sweet potatoes, and yellow potatoes simmer on the stove. Soon we’ll add broth, spinach, and the sausage and have a pot of fabulous soup — courtesy of the wonderful Smitten Kitchen blog.

Here’s Tyler hard at work:

Don’t forget the potatoes:

And here’s the end result!

Stay tuned: Later this week I’ll be whipping up a batch of black bean and pumpkin soup topped with roasted pumpkin seeds!

P.S. OMG. We just finished eating the soup. It’s amazing!!!! We ate it alongside a hearty whole wheat bread and delectable aged gouda cheese, with a lot of Tabasco sauce. So good!!