Paella Soup

When I showed Jax how the clams protect themselves by closing their shells tightly when I tapped on them, Jax spoke to the clams. "Don't worry. We won't hurt you. We're Christians." I explained to him that we were going put the clams in the soup and eat them. I was afraid that he would be bothered by this. We had a talk about how God made animals for us to eat. He enjoyed the clams as much as the rest of us.

My favorite part of the soup was the andoille sausage. I enjoyed the flavor of the broth, and I think it wouldn't have tasted as good without everything in it, but I would have been happy with just the sausage. I used 1/2 pound of sea scallops (because Puddleglum likes big scallops), 1/2 pound of bay scallops, one pound of clams, one pound of shrimp, four chicken tenderloins, and a full 12oz package of andoille sausage. I considered buying the saffron, but I figured my boys did not have palates sophisticated enough to justify the $12 for the teeny bit of saffron. I put in paprika and curry powder to give it some color, so really we didn't have paella soup. It was a seafood curry soup, but it was very good. In all the ingredients cost me $35, but it would have cost more for this much seafood at a restaurant. I don't think I will make this a lot because it isn't very budget conscious, but it was delicious for a special meal. For future reference, the red 5qt stock pot isn't big enough. Use the 8qt copper pot. Also, as unculinary as this sounds, I substituted peach flavored white grape juice for the white wine. Like I said, it was delicious...so back off.