Jelly Telly Post :: Psalm 121

I have a new post up on the Jelly Telly blog today. A little bit of stream-of-consciousness writing and what I've been thinking about in light of one of my favorite Psalms.

Lasagna Soup

 
Today was our last day of our Classical Conversations tutorial for the fall. (Insert loud cheer here!) The last 12 weeks (or so) have been full, full, FULL, but I think over all we have finished well. I knew I would be tired today after our last day so I'm not sure why I picked this soup to make for dinner instead of my normal crockpot Tuesday plan. However, I'm so glad I did! I was cold all. day. long. and it turns out that cooking something hot and scrumptious slowly over the stove when I got home was just what I needed today. I wish I remembered exactly where I saw this recipe the first time ... maybe life {in} grace? ... so I could give credit.

Lasagna Soup
My edits are in parenthesis; most things I left out were because I didn't have the ingredient.

for the soup:
2 tsp. olive oil
1-1/2 lbs. Italian sausage (I used Italian turkey sausage)
3 c. chopped onions.
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes (left this out)
2 T. tomato paste
1 28-oz. can fire roasted diced tomatoes (used regular diced)
2 bay leaves (left out)
6 c. chicken stock
8 oz. mafalda or fusilli pasta
1/2 c. finely chopped fresh basil leaves
salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

for the cheesy yum:
8 oz. ricotta
1/2 c. grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 tsp. salt
pinch of freshly ground pepper

additional cheesy yum:
2 c. shredded mozzarella cheese

Preparation

Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add sausage, breaking up into bite sized pieces, and brown for about 5 minutes. Add onions and cook until softened, about 6 minutes. Add garlic, oregano, and red pepper flakes. Cook for 1 minute. Add tomato paste and stir well to incorporate. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes, or until the tomato paste turns a rusty brown color.

 

Add diced tomatoes, bay leaves, and chicken stock. Stir to combine. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Add uncooked pasta and cook until al dente. Do not over cook or let soup simmer for a long period of time at this point, as the pasta will get mushy and absorb all the soup broth. You may even want to consider cooking the noodles separately, and then adding some to individual bowls before ladling the soup over them. This would be an especially smart move if you are anticipating any leftovers. Right before serving, stir in the basil and season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

 

While the pasta is cooking, prepare the cheesy yum. In a small bowl, combine the ricotta, Parmesan, salt, and pepper. To serve, place a dollop of the cheesy yum in each soup bowl, sprinkle some of the mozzarella on top and ladle the hot soup over the cheese.

 

Source (these were notes from the original recipe)Adapted from  300 Sensational Soups by Carla Snyder and Meredith Deeds, as seen in the February-April 2011 edition of At Home with Kowalski's magazine from Kowalski’s Markets .

 
My notes: this was DELICIOUS. The cheese mixture made the soup in my opinion and was well worth the calories. The only thing that I think I will do differently the next time is used crushed tomatoes instead of diced. I have several that will eat tomatoes without complaint as long as they can't see the big chunks. Though there weren't any complaints, I think I'll get an even better response without the chunks.

Enjoy!

10 on the 10th :: Sunday View

Catching up after one was at camp all weekend.



One came back from camp to show me how she learned to highlight things in her Bible.



Thinking about the week. And coffee.



Sunday night is breakfast for dinner and the one night where I am agreeable to being a short order cook.



About to get messy in here.



Plotting.



Crashed.



Working (and playing).



What I should have been doing last night.



What I did instead.

Simple Things Sunday

Sometimes breaking out the leftover Halloween candy is the best way to get us through our memory work on a week that has been seriously topsy-turvy as far as a complete lack of schedule. 

Linking up with Rebecca.

Hello November

Hello November.

Hello to leaves everywhere.

Hello to boys (and girls) enjoying those last few moments of daylight on cool afternoons before the sun sets so early.

Hello to cozy evenings inside, listening to music and learning together. (He’s walking her through the sheet music to the Hallelujah Chorus as they listen).

Hello to cozy suppers. (And cozy lunch leftovers).

Hello to plans and thoughts on paper.

Hello to evenings under the blankets with a good book (or several).

Hello to thankfulness and family and remembering … all things that come to mind as part of November.

Simple Things Sunday

We are not a sports watching family (on TV at any rate). We like to play them and have done our part out on the soccer and softball fields, but sitting and watching it on TV rarely holds any appeal for us. However, the World Series is where we break that rule. We are cheering on the Cardinals (although we are most impressed with the Boston Red Sox team) and are enjoying cheering them on in the evenings.

Simple traditions like watching a World Series baseball game together (complete with popcorn or maybe a bowl of ice cream) are often the sweetest.

Linking up with Rebecca.

Project Life :: September 30–October 6

Birthday week! And the start of the world’s busiest fall break. : )



Up above, on the left:

• snaps of the boy. What a ham. (Button from one of my Studio Calico kits and digi paper from Paislee Press)
• N1 presenting her paper in her Essentials class.
• B & I playing with self-portraits in black and white
• of note: I think most of the cards on the left are from random and assorted Studio Calico kits.

On the right – this whole side is devoted to the 10-year old. Her birthday was Thursday which involved the birthday girl’s choice of breakfast at Panera, going shooting with Daddy and lots of time in the kitchen whipping up birthday treats. The bottom right photo is from her birthday party which we had at the nearby bowling alley. This was our first out of the house / someone else take care of a lot of the details birthday party and I can’t say enough good things about a bowling party (at least at the place we used). It fit our budget, the kids had a ball, and they actually stood around and visited with each other which is my main complaint at birthday places where everyone runs off in a hundred different directions and you never even see the birthday person. Two thumbs up. The cards on this side are from one of the PL theme kits – Celebrate – which I spotted at Hobby Lobby and bought as a total impulse purchase. : )





(I was not having good luck taking great pictures today). More party shots on the back + cards from the Celebrate kit on the left.



On the right above are a few photos from the rest of the week:

• I served in the boy’s class at Bible study this week so a couple pictures from that.
• and the rest of the photos are all from Sunday when we had a family lunch celebrating all the October birthdays. N1, our nephew, and the boy are all within a four day window.

 

These next few pics are actually from the following week, but it continues on the birthday theme so I’m rolling with it. This is all about the boy and his day. His big request was the zoo with his cousin so we made it happen. The new kangaroo exhibit had just opened so that was a huge highlight!



More cards from the Celebrate kit.





Also getting my money’s worth out of some Paislee Press digi templates I bought quite a while ago. They are great when you have lots of pictures you want to use but don’t want to add in tons of inserts.



In other news, I knuckled down this week and finally finished the first half of 2013:



It’s not overly stuffed – this goes through the first week of July. I could have probably added more, but it stops after our family trip to Ohio which was a natural place for a break between books. Noticeably absent is T and N2’s trip to Guatemala from this summer, but I’m planning on making a PL mini album with those pictures, hopefully sooner rather than later. Otherwise, it feels good to be less behind that I was before. : )

Project Life is a product and a system created by Becky Higgins and available on Amazon.com, DigitalProjectLife.com, and many major craft retailers. It can be anything you want it to be. You can view all my posts about Project Life here. I'm always happy to answer questions about how Project Life works for me, if you have any. Affiliate links used where available.

Reminders in the Midst of Disappointment : A Jelly Telly Post

Last week was not my favorite.

I was easily frustrated.

I said unkind things.

I couldn’t say yes in a couple of situations and worried what others thought.

I got my feelings hurt.

I was tired.

I was anxious.

I was stretched.

Head over to Jelly Telly to read the rest of the post.

Crockpot Tuesday: Chicken Tortilla Soup

Tuesday is co-op day which means it’s also crockpot day. Today’s chilly weather (and what I had to work with in my pantry) called for soup so I scrounged in my recipes files and found one, but I tweaked it a bit based on what I had on hand. This is what I ended up with.

 

Slow Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup  

•1 medium onion, diced
•1 jalapeno, diced (would have been nice but I didn’t have one)
•4 cloves garlic, minced
•1 1/2 teaspoon cumin
•1/2 teaspoon chili powder
•1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional – I left out)
•1 (15 ounce can) fire roasted diced tomatoes (I used a can of rotel with lime)
•4 cups chicken broth (I actually used beef broth because I was out of chicken, but it tasted just fine!)
•1 (14.5 ounce) can black beans (or whatever kind you like)
•1 1/2 – 2 teaspoons kosher salt
•3 cups shredded chicken, already cooked (I dumped it in rock hard from the freezer)
•1 cup frozen corn kernels

Dump it all the crockpot on low and let it cook through all day. I love this kind of a recipe because you can tweak and fuss with it and it is practically impossible to mess up. Don’t like the spice of Rotel? Use a can of diced tomatoes. Have a family member that doesn’t like tomato pieces in their soup? Use crushed tomatoes or leave it out entirely. Swap out a can of colored mexi-corn instead of the frozen. So easy to just use what you have a come up with a tasty soup. We served ours with a little cheese sprinkled on top and some tortilla chips for dipping.

As an aside: just to keep it real, I only had one child that tried the soup. It had a slight kick to it from the Rotel and I knew some wouldn’t eat it so they mostly ate quesadillas. Fine by me … more leftovers. : ) This kind of soup is great leftover – as soup (you can add a tiny bit of water to it if it isn’t as soupy when it’s time to reheat it. And, if you lost most of the liquid by the time it’s cooked down scoop it over chips for easy nachos or dump it on a bed of lettuce for a quick chicken taco salad. I’m already looking forward to lunch tomorrow.

Happy eating. : )

Simple Things Sunday

Even when it’s a very very very full Saturday and you are going in a bunch of different directions, just being doing it all together is the sweetest.

Linking up with Rebecca.

Simple Things Sunday

A Friday field trip to the Huntsville Space and Rocket Center. A day of fun and learning and capped off with dinner with a good friend.

Simple (yet busy!) days are sometimes the sweetest.

Linking up with Rebecca.