Inspirations from cheese in a can. joey, kelly, danny, and charlie

The weather has been behaving appropriately lately, which is a little inappropriate for our area. It’s been clear and cool, with brisk breezes, blue skies, and beautiful leaves, with the occasional overcast day. These overcast days are my favorite, because they provide the perfect backdrop to better enjoy your soup (or hot tea or ridiculously expensive coffee or homemade cocoa, all of which I’ve been loving lately). I hate sweating while I eat or drink, so I look forward to cooler temperatures to indulge in these warming favorites.

Today I’m dropping off meals for two friends that recently had babies, and I couldn’t help but revisit one of my favorites for this purpose: Hoppin’ John Soup. You’re going to think I only cook what my sister tells me to, because I got this recipe from her, too. And I guess you’d be right. She doesn’t much bake though, so I come by all that stuff on my own. As soon as I can get a picture of something interesting I baked, I’ll post a recipe of that, too.

Anyway, this soup is perfect in its simplicity, heartiness, and utter ease to prepare. I’m really taking one for the team giving up my secret here….I can’t even count how many people I’ve made this for in the last year, and if they stumble by here, now they’ll know that I’m a Cheating McCheaterson. But because November is not even halfway over, and I’m running out of stuff to post already, sacrifices must be made. So, here is the recipe for the easiest soup ever (if you have something easier, I fully expect you to fill me in on that.)

Hoppin’ John Soup (modified from this recipe at allrecipes.com)

INGREDIENTS
* 1 pound sage pork sausage (I use half turkey sausage when I can)
* 1 (6 ounce) package uncooked long grain and wild rice mix, with seasoning packet
* 2 (15 ounce) cans black-eyed peas, drained
* 2 (14.5 ounce) cans diced tomatoes, with liquid (for some spice, sub one can with Ro-Tel)
* 1 quart (32 oz) chicken broth (or stock)
* 1 cup water (Hey, guess what? I forgot the water last night. Still good.)
* salt to taste

DIRECTIONS
1. Crumble sausage into a soup pot over medium heat and cook until evenly brown. Drain if you insist. (I think the drippings are the best part.)
2. Add the rice mix with seasoning packet, stir together, and cook for 4-5 minutes, allowing the rice to brown a little and/or soak up the fat from the sausage. Mmmm fat. Add the black-eyed peas, tomatoes, broth and water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer 20 minutes, or until rice is tender. Season to taste with salt (I usually find there to be plenty of salt from the sausage, beans, and stock).