"SKI SOUP"

I made this soup when the kids were young and we would go skiing.  It freezes well so I would make it at home and then heat up one evening after they had been skiing during the day.  Serve with hot french bread and everyone is happy.

1 lb ground beef
1/2 c chopped onion
2 cans (14 1/2 oz) Italian stewed tomatoes
     I put in the blender first to get rid of the pieces (for Erik:)
2 cans (10 1.2 oz) beef broth
1 can (16 oz) mixed veg , drained
1 t dried oregano
1/2 t salt (usually I leave this out since the canned items have plenty of salt)
1/4 t pepper
1 c uncooked egg noodles

In large soup pot,  brown beef and onion, drain.  Add tomatoes, broth, vegetables and seasonings.  Bring to a boil, add noodles.  Reduce heat to medium and cook covered for 10-15 minutes or until noodles are done.  (6-8 servings)

Plan to try it this winter by replacing beef with beans and beef broth with vegetable broth to see how it works as a vegetarian soup.

Happy Fall ;or Maybe Winter

Just when we thought we were going to enjoy all

the fall activities it is snowing again.  We had  

3-4 inches of snow last week and it is forecast

for more today and tomorrow.  That along with the flood

we have had many different days of weather.

In between all the up and down temps we had some pretty flowers

and we dug  the sweet potato crop.

Happy holidays to everyone

Another soupy post!

Split Pea Soup

This is a recipe from Randy's mom.  She makes it from scratch and has had the recipe in her head for years.  :)  So here are the ingredients.

Split peas(1 pkg.)
Vegetable or chicken broth (large size 1 qt.)
1 onion ( 2 inches across-use half-cut small)
4 slices of bacon or ham slices or a hambone.
For the bacon:  brown a bit, add onions, peas, and broth
For the ham:  just add to onions, peas, and broth

Cook 2-3 hours.  Add water mixture if needed.  It gets pretty thick.

Water mixture: Add water with chicken broth cubes(1-1 1/2 tsp.)

Yes, there really is leisure time!

Hello family:

Tim and I are actually doing non work things these days.  Tim seeded the front yard and lo and behold we have a good stand of grass.  I think we have given up on the back yard.  It has gone to the dogs.  Although, Tim is still planning to repurpose the Johnston (thank you) deck wood for a small deck out back.  He has been working on his church treasurers job which creates many frown lines as well as Sunday School class and a local Mental Health task force committee.

With the new job, I have evenings and weekends free.  I have rediscovered my enjoyment with house plants.  One of my favorites is “Audrey”.  She is a large aloe vera that was given to me.  When she first arrived I found her rather creepy, hence the name Audrey from little shop of horrors.  Since then I have discovered that she is really rather sensitive and sunburns.  She moved outside for just a bit this summer but had to return inside.  As you can see she is thriving and producing more little Audreys. 

I hope they don’t take over.  Here’s a couple more pictures of my plants.  Now if they can just survive the winter.  I have considered giving them all names but we shall see… The next kind I want to try is a split leave philodendron.

I’ve also been working on the house.  One large project is cleaning up the “lego” room.  Good heavens there was lots of stuff in there and many giant dust bunnies.  It’s not done yet but progress is being made.

 

This weekend we did the annual Givan Fall Festival.  Tim, Kate, Tyson, Gus and I went to Polk’s and picked out some pumpkins.  Then we followed  it up with some yummy chili made by Tim.

Happy Fall you all!