Soup Story and Recipe
When I was in Chicago, my sister and I went to Caputo's grocery store. I went for some pickles that you can only get there and found their meat department. It was freezing and nasty outside and I wanted to make some soup. They had some wonderful sausage that I can't find here in Arizona so I bought a ton to make my version of Italian Wedding soup meets Chinese Egg Drop soup. I never got the chance to make the soup while I was there so froze the sausage to bring home with me.
When I checked my bags at the airport, I was over the weight limit (for once in my life the bags were overweight and not me), so I took out five pounds of sausage and stuffed it in my backpack along with my laptop and books. My back was not loving me. By the time I made it home, the sausage in my backpack was thawed so I needed to do something with it soon. The day after I got back, I made a late night trip to the store to buy everything I needed for soup and then stayed up until midnight cooking the sausage so it wouldn't spoil. I set the sausage on paper towels to let the fat drain off while I talked to my sister on the phone.
This last week has been a little loopy for the whole family. While I was in Chicago, my father had to go to Alabama to be with my Grandmother who is not doing too well so his dog, Thunder is at my house with my two dogs and three cats. After I hung up, I found that my father's dog had eaten all five pounds of sausage off the counter. This is a huge dog, but five pounds of sausage is a lot, even for him. The dog laid on the floor and moaned... all night. And then the farting started. Dog sausage farts are not one of my favorite scents. The other dogs couldn't get their noses out of Thunder's butt and he was so miserable that he didn't care. Of course, the cats were disgusted. After the moaning stopped, the snoring started. I didn't know a 120 pound dog could snore that loud.
So here it is, Saturday and the temperature is supposed to be in the high 80's or low 90's here in Arizona. I still wanted the darned soup so hot outside or not, I went to the store, bought more sausage and made the soup. It's really protein rich and delicious so maybe those of you still in the cold will enjoy it.
3 pounds of Italian sausage (I use a pound each of Sicilian, Sweet and hot sausage)
About 2 gallons of chicken broth, vegetable broth or a mix of both. I like to use Penzy's vegetable broth paste mixed with reduced sodium chicken broth and water
6 stalks of celery - diced
2 cups of shredded carrots
One large onion chopped
Lots of garlic
2 Tbs Italian Spice blend
1 TBS dried Oregano
1TBS dried Basil
Fresh ground black pepper to taste
Pasta of your choice - Orzo or a small elbow pasta is fine. I didn't give an amount because it depends on how many carbs you want to consume
2 cans of Cannelloni beans
4 eggs beaten
Bag of washed fresh baby spinach
Shredded Parmesan Cheese for garnish
Crumble the sausage and brown until it is not quite done. You want to leave it a little pink. Drain th sausage well, patting it with paper towels to absorb as much grease as possible.
Start the broth to boiling and add the sausage. Reduce to simmer.
Sauté the onions and garlic in PAM or a tsp of the leftover sausage grease until translucent.
Add onions, garlic, celery, carrots and spices.
Simmer for ½ hour
Bring back to a boil and add pasta. Boil for 5 minutes.
Add beans.
Slowly drizzle eggs into pot as soup boils slowly.
Add spinach and stir.
Ladle into bowls and top with cheese.
You'll want to adjust the spices to your taste. I like lots of spice so I usually add more than I listed here. I also don't cook with salt and don't feel that this recipe needs it since the sausage and cheese are salted. Obviously this makes a ton of soup. I freeze some and give some to neighbors and friends.
Hugs,
Conne
Dear Connie
As I am still laughing my fool head off with this story. I who have dogs & big dogs can so relate. The soup sound wonderful, but the dog story is soooo funny. I really needed
that laugh. I will be in AZ the 22nd to the 25th. You wanna
cool it off before I get there, please. it was only about 68 here today. Not ready for the 90's yet. Suppose to be 80 tomorrow, here
We'll See. I don't believe the weather men here, either!!
Marilyn, the Bearlady 
Love the story and love the recipe. When my lab was 8 months old he ate a bunch of Rhodes Bread dough while it was rising. We called the vet and he said he should be ok, but that his stomach would get distented from gas put off by the raw dough, but he would get rid of it. It was kinda comical as he would lay on the wood floors, moan, and then the scent of some bad bread would soon follow.
For those who haven't read the book "Marlie and Me" , it is a nice read and it could be called "Griz and Me" as we had some very similar experiences to what goes on in the book.
HA HA HA...
I am only laughing in symapthy!
Our 110 pound dog ate a turkey...the whole FREAKING turkey...then the laying and moaning snoring and THEN the gas!!!!
My kids were disgusted...My then 4 year old was yelling Bosco is dying help him...the 8 year old was shouting he's already dead inside he stinks like DEATH!!!
BUT, I will say he will not eat turkey now!@@!!!!
LOL
the soup recipe sounds great any idea on how to cut it down canI just 1/2 it???
I don't have a ton of freezer space, and I am not known as the best cook around so if I offered it to people they might think I was trying to poison them! LOL
nic
Nic,
I'd just 1/2 the recipe. You might want to put in 2 pounds of sausage and 2 cans of beans to keep the protein high. The measurements I gave were guesstimates since I never measure, so do what tastes good to you. It's hard to mess this up so just do what seems right. Right after I made the soup, I came down with a nasty cold so the soup came in handy.
Hope Boscofeels better these days and stays away from the counter.
Connie
Eeeew Yeast Farts. Your poor dog. I bet a tummy full of dough feels worse than a tummy full of sausage.
I have a dog that is very food motivated and would easily overeat anything in his path. My other dog could care less about food and only eats to survive. He'll walk around with a rawhide for two days if he doesn't feel like eating it. Makes me wonder what makes dogs predisposed to overeat, much like people.
Connie
This story is so funny! But I do have one major tip for your moaning dogs! PLEASE if this happens again, give them a Pepsid! It will settle their stomachs and they will be in a lot less pain. I have a dog that gets pancreatitis and she takes a Pepsid once a day for life, per our vet. And she only weighs 25 pounds!
Sorry about the sausage and turkeys, etc, but I feel so sorry for the pooches!
Karen
Well Connie,
I guess , judging by the previous replys, that lots of us who have had big, dumb dogs have similar big, dumb dog stories to relate. My story goes back to when I was around 13 or 14 years old. I had an unusually large German Shepherd who weighed over 90 lbs without being fat. He did love to eat though. One day, he managed to get into the storage area where we kept his food and ate a large part of a 25 lb. bag of dry Purina Dog Chow! Needless to say, this made him very thirsty, so he followed it up by drinking the toilet dry. We never allowed him to drink from the toilet, but I guess his need was stronger than the door latch!! Needless to say, all of the water met all of the Chow and caused the expansion of same!! I came home to find the world's first pregnant male Shepherd lying on his side on the floor moaning in agony!! Well, he survived and we did a better job of locking away the chow! Thanks for the great story.....it brought back a lot of good "doggie memories". The soup sounds great.....I'll try it although I won't make it too HOT.....I find that I have a lot lower tolerance for spice since I had my insides re-vamped.
Mike
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