Soup Weather

Cold weather has arrived to the Metroplex on Sunday, so Monday night I prepared the soup below that I actually finished yesterday. I felt some creeping crud coming. Everyone seems to have it around me, so I hope it's nothing serious but the sniffles. This soup is very easy to prepare, and, despite the fact that it mostly uses canned stuff, is very, very tasty.

Southwest Soup

1/2 onion, finely chopped
2 tbsp. oil
1 smoked all-beef, all-pork or venison sausage, sliced
1 can black beans, drained
1 can yellow hominy, drained
1/2 jar mild salsa (can use medium or hot if you prrefer it more spicy)
1 can chicken broth (I used all-natural low-sodium)
salt, black pepper to taste
1 tsp chili powder of your choice (I used Pendery's House Blend)
few sprigs of fresh cilantro
sour cream to taste

1. Saute onion and sausage slices in olive oil over medium heat for about 3-4 minutes (onions shoild be softening, sausage slices should be browning).
2. Add beans, hominy, salsa and chicken broth, all at once. Stir, cover and bring to a boil. Taste and season with salt, black pepper and the chili powder and simmer on low for about 15 minutes more.
Serve in deep bowls with a dollop of sour cream on top and sprinkled with cilantro, with slices of crusty bread on the side.

In The Cool Archeology News Department....

... more amazing discoveries in Rome.
To my shame, I've never actually been to the City, despite studying classical archeology for years. I hope to get there one day... and that by then, most of these new digs will be on display, as they are planning them to.

Ice Cream

Haagen-Dazs' Caramelized Pear and Pecan.
Go try it. Now.
Seriously, it's totaly guilt-free. No chocolate in it... :)

Cool and Moving News Department

This is way cool, and very moving. Especially at this time.
I am no Catholic. But I'll pray for this one to be all over the globe.

Polidori XVIII.

Quick service announcement:

Polidori ( the annual Halloween-ish reading extravaganza stated out in The Husband and Co.'s University of Dallas days) is ON for November 1, 2008. This year again it will be held at our abode. I sent a bunch of evites out for folks, but if you'd like to come and didn't get an email, shoot me a message in the comments or email me and I'll get you an official invite.
Hope to see ya there!

Traveling Fall

Well, they say the second trimester is the time for traveling, so I certainly had been all over the place, and it's not over yet. First Chris' wedding in Baltimore (so lovely!), then accompanying The Husband to a sabre seminar he held in Chicago last weekend (it was unexpectedly fun, meeting with some truly wonderful fellows)... then the middle of this month another wedding in OKC (hi, Mike!), and The Husband is plotting a Thanksgiving getaway for us to a very unlikely location. And, since my doctor cleared the air travel for me in Deember, I'll be going home for Christmas, too.
It seems I am getting my travel fix these months in anticipation of not going anywhere for quite a while afterwards...