Dinner tonight. The ba.food connection is a plug for the Food Mill, in
Oakland on MacArthur Boulevard between 35th Ave. and Coolidge/Fruitvale
Avenue exits. Aidell's sausage were on sale in the frozen meats
section, 3 pounds for $5.99. I got the New Mexico TUrkey and Chicken
Sausage, and hubby has been working his way through them for a week
now, but I really wanted to finish them off.

Food Mill: has a really interesting frozen meat section - all
variations on hormone & antibiotic free, grass fed, and/or free range
meats and poultry. I saw ground ostrich meat in patties, also lamb, and
the sausages already mentioned.

More Food Mill info - their selection of bulk dry items is the most
extensive I've seen, although I haven't been to Whole Foods lately to
compare. If you live near 580 east of Oakland and don't want to bother
going to Berkeley for your whole grains, pulses, dried fruits, teas,
spices and pastas, then try Food Mill. For those of you coming from the
east, get out at Fruitvale/Coolidge, turn right on Coolidge Street and
right on MacArthur.

FM is also opening a branch on MacArthur Boulevard near Broadway, just
across from Kaiser Hospital. They are partnering with Kaiser to promote
"healthy cooking at home". Note that Kaiser also sponsors a farmer's
market on Howe Street - Fridays I think - all part of their
preventative medicine approach. Eat more fresh produce, cook more food
at home, live longer and be less of a problem to your HMO.

ANYWAY - the soup. My new pressure cooker makes this soup a snap.

1 cup of dry white beans, rinsed and picked over (no need to soak)
small can of tomatoes, chopped, the juice strained into a large
measuring cup
Enough water added to the tomato juice to make 5 cups
5 cloves garlic, minced
2 bay leaves
6 sprigs of parsley, chopped
1 carrot, peeled and diced
Dollop of olive oil

1 bunch kale, cleaned, stemmed and roughly chopped
1 pound sausage, sliced in bite size pieces - I used "New Mexico Turkey
& Chicken" but you could use any sausage that strikes your fancy,
adjusting seasonings to compensate
Fat pinch dried oregano (optional)
Salt and pepper

Put beans, water, garlic, bay leaves, parsley, carrot and olive oil in
pressure cooker. Following manufacturer's directions, pressure cook for
25 minutes. Cool off under running water, bring down pressure
(following directions!), open up, add kale, sausage, oregano and
generous salt. If you think it needs more water, add another 1/2 to 1
cup.

Cook under pressure for another 5 minutes, let it depressure naturally.
Open, add pepper and more salt if needed. The soup will look a little
watery at first, but give it a stir and let it sit - the beans will
thicken. Taste for seasonings - you may want to add a little thyme or
marjoram, a little more olive oil, and maybe some chopped raw garlic,
if you used mild sausage. The sausage I used was so spicy that this
isn't necessary.

It's not a bad approximation of a Portuguese Kale soup I ate in
Provincetown 17 years ago, although the NEw Mexico spices make it much
more pungent and chile-infused. Total work time for bean soup from
scratch: about 45 minutes. Lord I don't know how many servings I've got
here- it's about 9 cups of soup, but a portion of this as a supper soup
would be at least 1.5 cups, so let's say it serves 6.

Leila