Fabada Asturiana

[Eric Smith Fernandez]

I made "sopa de berzas" or Kale soup. I used vennnison (deer) sausages that I had in my freezer. A man my dad works with had a deer that he killed processed. The package was labled "deer bratwurst" They looked like "brats" you would buy at the grocery store or ballpark except not as pink.

Bob, I imagine like you said, they were a mix of pork and vennison. They tasted good. I was tring to think of a creative way to cook them.

By the way, i picked up my ground bulk sausage from the butcher today. When i get off work, I'm going to add all the spices mix it up and refrigerate. The butcher said my arm would be sore from cranking forever and that it would take me about 4 hrs to do it. I told him my 16 year old brother would do all the cranking and i would man the casings.

He said next time i could tell him how much of what spices i wanted and he would do the hard part for me. I said, "it's not my recipe". And there is no fun in having someone else do the hard work. If i just wanted chorizo i would order it from latienda.com I want the whole experience.

Besides, my parents and younger siblings live 40 minutes drive away. This would be a good time to catch up and bond a little. Maybe i can get my dad (a non asturian-american) to help and get a little more culture in his diet at the same time.

I think we live in such a fast paced society, that sometimes we just need to slooowww it down a little.