Put Down The Whisk Before Someone Gets Hurt

We're on kind of a crazy cookery binge over here.

Today, I made soup. It's like a florentine soup, except not. My old friend Kate suggested it a million years ago, and now I make it about once a year. Here's how it works:

Get: two large Italian sausages (sweet, which is to say, not hot), half a large sweet onion (diced), one 15 oz. can of chopped tomatoes, one bag of baby spinach, a cup of long-grain rice, and a lot of chicken stock (I use a jarred stock paste plus water), and a little olive oil, salt, and pepper. For equipment, you'll need a large soup pot (I used my leCreuset because it's not sticky and because it's nice and heavy - no burning!), a wooden spoon, a knife, etc.

Do this: Put some oil in the pot (maybe 2T), then cook the sausages (whole) for a while on medium heat. You're just searing them and making it easier to cut them. When they're browned, take them out and put them on a cutting board. Throw in your onions (you may need to turn down the heat a little) and cook them for 5 or 10 minutes (they'll be sweating at first, then browning a little). Add a little salt and pepper now, while you can easily see it. Once you think the onions are ok (it's a matter of taste, not science), pour in the tomatoes and stir to get up any fond (brown bits). Cut the sausages into thin slices. Add that to the pot. Add the spinach. Poke it down in the goo. Add about 4 quarts of stock (more, less, whatever. It should pretty much fill the pot). Add the rice. Stir.

After about 30 minutes, you will have a yummy soup that's sort of Florentine in that it contains spinach. But really, it's a sausage and rice stew with tomatoes and spinach for nutrition and flavor. The chicken stock and sausage are salty, BTW, so that's why you don't add much salt. You can always add more at the end, but I seriously doubt you'll want to.

ANYWAY, in addition to that, we've got The Great Ham-Fest 2009 tomorrow. I acquired a ham, I have set up my mise-en-place (2 cans Dr. Pepper! Cider Vinegar! Light Brown Sugar! Prunes!!!) and am ready to rumble. I'm also bringing some appetizers, but those don't require cooking.

Once we're done with tomorrow's extravaganza, it will be on to the following weekend, when I'll be hosting a tiny soiree. I don't know what I'm making yet, since I'm waiting for everyone else's contributions to be finalized. But I'm sure I'll be making apps, drinks, and something vegetable.

And now I'm tie-tie. Must go to bed and watch Mad Men. It makes me so delighted with our own era - it's a real pick-me-up.