Arroz Con Gandules (Rice w/ Pigeon Peas)

My daughter's soon to be Mother in law, Liliana, made this for us at Thanksgiving, which by the way was the best Thanksgiving we ever had, and we all loved it so much better than plain old rice as a side dish. She told me her recipe was similar to the one on the back of the Goya Pigeon Pea can but with a few tweaks. She used Kielbasa sausage chopped in her recipe which we like a lot! I wrote down her recipe made and also made a few of my own tweaks, only because I get headaches from pre-packaged seasonings which contain dyes and MSG, so I basically used her recipe but with a homemade Puerto Rican sofrito and annoto seeds for a natural yellow coloring. It came out so delicioso! You can eat this as a main or side dish.
~Our Thanksgiving~Ingredients
2 cans pigeon peas
4 cups rice
water (see amount in directions)
1/4 cup olive oil
annoto seeds ( just about a teaspoon) or a large pinch of saffron
Puerto Rican Sofrito ( 1/4 onion, handful cilantro, 1/2 of a sweet pepper, 1 garlic clove, and enough olive oil to blend all processed in a food processed until smooth)
1/4 cup chopped green olives w/ pimentos
4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 cup green olives with pimento (drained and chopped)
1 kielbasa sausage link chopped
1/4 cup tomato sauce
Directions
heat the oil and seeds on low heat until the oil is golden like the sun! Remove seeds and dispose. Add the sofrito and saute until soft. Add sausage and fry a few minutes. Stir in the tomato sauce, pigeon peas, cumin, olives, and salt.
Add enough water to cover the rice by 1 inch. Dip the end of a wooden spoon in and look to see how deep it is.
Bring to a boil and cook without stirring until the rice meets the water level.
Stir one good time, lower heat and cover. Cook for 20 minutes without peaking!