Preemptive Game Day Yumminess

I have two recipes to share this week and I thought I'd get them up beforehand as I've made them both before and they are uber yummy.

Kate's Zuppa Toscana

1 16 ounce package spicy italian sausage (ground or removed from casing)
6 slices bacon
1 medium onion (chopped)
2-3 cloves garlic (finely minced)
1 quart water
2 Tbsp chicken boullion
2 medium potatoes (1/4 inch slices)
2 cups kale (shredded)
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
1/2 cup whipping cream

Directions
1. Cook sausage over medium-high heat. Drain fat.
2. In same pot, fry bacon until crisp, drain on paper towels. Crumble and set aside.
3. Drain all but 1 t bacon fat from pot. Add onions and cook on medium heat until softened. Add garlic and cook for one minute.
4. Add water, chicken broth and potatoes. Bring a boil, reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 15 minutes or until potatoes are tender.
5. Return the cooked sausage and crumbled back to the pot. Add kale and red pepper; simmer for 4 minutes.
6. Stir in cream and cook until heated through, without boiling. Serve hot.

Notes
Don't use turkey bacon no matter how much you want to cut out the fat. It tastes terrible in this. Truly truly terrible.

And

Adapted from Jo's Rosemary Bread

1 cup water (warm)
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons white sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 T fresh rosemary (I might add more the next time I make it)
2 1/2 cups bread flour
1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

Directions
1. Throw yeast, sugar, oil, and water into a bowl. Wait a minute until its bubbly.
2. While you wait, throw everything else in a bowl and mix together.
2. Once the yeast mixture is bubbly, add the dry stuff.
3. I mix it together until the ingredients are partially mixed, then set my kitchen aid with the dough hook. I let it go for maybe six minutes.
ETA- forgot a critical step: Let it rise for about an hour in a warm place, shape it on the cookie sheet and let it sit for another half hour.
4. Shape the dough ball into the shape you want and cook at 375 for 40 minutes.
5. Eat. Yum.

The Sock Stealer

Full name: Sigmund Mystery Chip Popcorn Mustard. Status: Reformed Stray. Origin: Twentynine Palms, CA. Profession: Sock Stealer.



Sigmund is aboslutely gorgeous. We think he could be at least partially apricot siamese. He has the prettiest blue eyes that are as crossed as they can get. He is also really rambunctious. He spends a lot of time terrorising Mei Lei (profile to come) and stalking walls and other random things around the house. He hates to be touched unless he's outside.






Inspiration for writing about this kitty today was memories of having to chase my laundry around the house. I usually keep a laundry basket with assorted socks laying about while they wait for the dryer monster to relinquish thier mates. Each morning, I have to collect these from around the house as our little kitty decides he wants to hide them in various places. As shown in the picture above, he also loves boot bands. He waits patiently for my husband to take off his boots so that he can dig for them every chance he gets.

Mr. Speed Racer

Kiddo sometimes gives an interesting new twist on things. He keeps asking what his nickname is and we give him assorted answers of things we call him. Then he tells us he wants it to be Speed Racer. Now, this is only the latest of his list of want-to-be nicknames. Silly kid.

And onto the more important news, his optometry appointment yesterday revealed that glasses are in his future. We sort of guessed they would be (I mean, genetics are working against him), but I wasn't feeling it this soon. Its not that his vision is bad at this point, but that he's relying on one eye to do all his seeing. So we ordered some yesterday and they'll be in within the week. Just in time for the family reunion. Yay!

Pushup Challenge gone bad.

Wow. I feel like a failure.

I pulled the 100 Pushup Challenge off Kate's blog and my husband and I decided to give it a try. Dan being my big buff Marine is of course way ahead of me on this one. We get started the first day, and on my last set- what do I do? I strain my back. I guess its called Paraspinal Back Strain. Whatever that means. However, it feels like every time I move the muscle that runs along side one side of my back sends waves of pain throughout my body. In reality, its gotten better for the last two days, but it still sucks. I can't run. I can't do pushups. I can't even do situps! Arg, I hate being restricted. Hopefully in a couple days I'll be up and running again. Until then- keep the Naproxen coming!

Yummy goodness as its bestest.

Oh my...

I have a new love in my life.

CakeLove.

My dear friends took me to this place in Tyson's Corner and we stopped here for dessert. There were so many yummy flavors to choose from and the all looked heavenly. I went with strawberry buttercream on chocolate cake. Then the waiting started.

Twenty agonizing minutes I had to wait to eat my little bundle of all natural yummy goodness. Twenty minutes! Because, you see, these are many with no perservatives, they are kept partially frozen. So I stared at it. I licked it. I realized I'm not very patient when it comes to sweets.

But in the end, it was totally worth it.

The buttercream MELTS in your mouth. There were little bits of strawberry in mine, unlike regular processed ickiness. The cake part- so dense yet light, it was the best cake I've ever had. Ugh. I cannot wait to go back. I am going to take Kate because its rare that I can come up with a Vegan treat for her. I count the days until I can go again.

Bare Walls

Yesterday I got sick of looking at the bare walls of my house. We've lived here since October and the only thing we've done to decorate is put a television and cork board up. I know, we're creative. So today, I'm going to add staining picture frames and mirrors to my to do list and hopefully this weekend I'll have at least a couple rooms where I want them. Wish me luck!

I took some pictures of our newest stray recently. Jasper was less than six pounds and in bad shape when we got him. Over the last eight months, this kitty has managed to pain two pounds and claim the title of most expensive animal we have ever owned (taking the title from pup Rainken who has been with us for over eight years).

Jasper is such an awesome cat. He immediately latched onto me (much to Dan's dismay!) and got into the habbit of head butting me to try and get attention in the middle of the night. When that didn't work, my arm usually got a bath. Jasper isn't allowed to sleep in the bedroom anymore. He can carry a steak that outweighs he across the dining room. He has not stopped trying to run outside. Despite all his stray traits, he's such a loving little boy- I couldn't imagine not having him!

Game Days

Most normal people I know think of football when we talk about game day. For myself, I personally hate sports. Instead, it refers to every other week where some of our friends come over and we spend a good deal of the night playing Dungeons and Dragons. Its fun, the kids have a ball playing together until bedtime, we have dinner, and overall its just a great excuse for hanging out with people you like. I am usually the one who does the cooking, though my friend Sarah was nice enough to take over this week. I thought I'd start keeping track of the recipes I use though. Since I didn't this week, I'll start with one of my favorites:

Chicken Pot Pie (by Kombat Kween)

6 Tbsp butter
6 Tbsp flour
2 c chicken broth
1 c heavy cream or half & half
2 c veggies (I used kale, carrots, peas, and peppers)
2 chicken breasts, cooked and cut up
4 small white potatoes, cubed small and cooked
2 pie crusts

Melt butter in a pot and stir in flour to form a thick paste. Add salt and pepper. Stir in cream and chicken broth. Cook on a simmer until thick.

Add veggies, potatoes and chicken. Pour into pie crust, top with the other. Poke holes in the top to vent. Cook at 375 for 35 to 45 minutes. I almost always get two pies out of this mixure, but I tend to load up on the veggies.

What a wonderful summer

My little boy is six. I do all the normal nostolgia stuff each time he has a birthday, but honestly, I don't ever have those "oh I'm going to cry because he's getting so big why can't he be tiny again" moments. He never ceases to amaze me and I think the greatest part of being a parent is watching your child develop into a (hopefully) well adjusted adult. I don't know. I say these things and half the time I feel like other mothers look at me like I have three heads. Whatever.

We took him to King's Dominion for his birthday. He's still too short for the roller coasters, but he loved it anyways. He loved the Scooby Doo Haunted Mansion (it has laser guns) and the Scooby Doo (kiddy) roller coaster. Yes, I felt pretty silly panicing over sitting in the front seat, where of course kiddo wanted to be. Especially as we went down the hill. Sigh. Four more inches...

My zucchini is thriving, despit being repotted a couple weeks ago. I do have squash bugs which I keep reading are impossible to kill. I'm not looking forward to squashing them (no pun intended). Bugs are icky, even as a pile of goo and shell. Maybe especially as? I can't wait to get corn- I can't believe its actually doing well out here. Three stalks are above my knee. Hopefully the peppers will do well now that they get some sun (squash was sheltering them before). I'm going to try and make chocolate zucchini muffins this weekend. We'll see how that goes. I'm running out of ways to cook it.

Time to get going- so much to do before my sister and law and family come into town! We'll be spending a lot of time in DC and just having a lot of fun. I cannot wait to see my niece and nephews!!!