Potato Sausage Soup- Yum!!

This potato soup is one of our favorite recipes! It has such a delicious flavor to it, and we have made it over and over again. It's from my Busy Woman's Cookbook, which I love!

Potato-Sausage Soup

1 lb. pork sausage links*
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped onion
2 (10 oz) cans potato soup**
1 (14 oz) can chicken broth
1 package of frozen hash browns***

1. If using pork links, cut sausage into 1 inch diagonal slices. We prefer breakfast sausage with it, so just brown that in a large heavy soup pot, drain and place in separate bowl. Leave about two tbsp sausage drippings in skillet and saute celery and onion.

2. Add potato soup, 3/4 cup water, chicken broth, and sausage. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Serves 4. (If you decide to put in the hash browns, I put these in when I simmer the soup for 20 minutes.)

*We prefer breakfast sausage instead of links. Well, really, it's javascript:void(0)just me that does. We've been using sage breakfast sausage, which is really delicious!

**Just potato soup does not exist, so look for cream of potato.

***Since potato soup does not exist, if you make it with just that, it really doesn't have very many potatoes in it. Once I decided to add in some frozen hash browns to see what would happen, and it was awesome! If you like a little more spice, you can try southwestern hash browns!

There you go!! :)

P.S.  Jeff wanted to say this is his most favorite soup that he has ever consumed.

"Breakfast burritos make me fat" & other things

Also, my one and only reader, Lindsay, said she thought I needed to spice up my blog a little. I'm not sure if this will be funny, but I thought I would still share it.

I've been doing a group for the past four weeks with three girls who are cognitively impaired. We've been working on concepts like body protection, body awareness, and just general "My body belongs to me" kinds of things. Well, it has been so much fun, as well as a mixture of hilarious and sad. These girls are pretty unpredictable with what they say so they keep me laughing inside...

One of the girls in the group perseverates on things, especially jalapenos. Here are two of her knock-knock jokes from the first session:

Knock knock.

Who's there?

Jalapeno.

Jalapeno who?

I like it hot!


Knock knock.

Who's there?

You.

You who?

You get on out of here!

SO funny! And today, we were role-playing how we would respond to bullies. So she started making a gun with her hands and saying, "PUT YOUR HANDS UP IN THE AIR!"

If my job could be filled with this, I think I would love it a lot more!

Mixed Vegetable Minestrone- YUM!

Ingredients:
2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1 med. onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed with press
salt and pepper
1 can (28 oz.) diced tomatoes
4 c. water
1 lb. carrots, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 sm. bunch Swiss Chard, stems removed and discarded; leaves thinly sliced
1/2 lb. green beans, trimmed and cut into 1-in pieces
1 1/2 c. frozen shelled edamame
1 1/2 c. cooked or 1 can (15 oz) white kidney beans (cannellini)
1 c. tubetti or other short pasta
1/2 c. plus 6 Tbsp. freshly grated Parmesan cheese

1. In 5- to 6-quart, heat 1 tablespoon oil on medium until hot. Stir in onion, garlic, and 1/8 teaspoon salt, 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper. Cover and cook 4-5 minutes or until tender. Add tomatoes and water. Heat to boiling on medium-high. Add carrots; cover and cook 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add chard and green beans; cook 6 minutes or until beans are just tender stirring occasionally. Add edamame and white beans; cook 5 minutes or until edamame beans are cooked through. .

2. Meanwhile, cook pasta as label directs. Drain well and stir into saucepot with soup. Stir in 1/2 cup Parmesan, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Ladle into 6 soup bowls. Top each portion with 1 tablespoon Parmesan and 1/2 teaspoon oil.

This was delicious! Took a while to make, but it makes a ton, especially if you have a small family! It would also be good for company. Thought I would share with you!

Also, if you can chop up all that stuff in 18 minutes, I'm impressed.. :) And Swiss Chard is a leafy vegetable--kind of like big spinach leaves.

Good bye 2009! Hello 2010!

Happy New Year!!

We really hope everyone had a great Christmas and holiday season.. and that you were able to spend time with loved ones and celebrate the wonderfulness of Christmas!

I obviously haven't been on in a long time. I've really wanted to, but I really just dread typing after having had to do it so much in grad school and on the job. I also didn't really know what to write! :)

So I looked at some other blogs and saw that some people had written what was special and what they wanted to remember about 2009, and thought, "I would like to do that, too!" It seems like so much has happened in the past year, which seems to be the trend in this phase of our lives.. :)

So here goes..
January: Celebrated 6 months of marriage! I took the Praxis...

February: I don't really remember too much of February.. Probably were both busy traveling back and forth to work and school. We started exploring some new churches in our area, wondering if God wanted us to be somewhere else.

March: Found out I passed the Praxis.. Did several interviews for internships.

April: I got offered an internship... on APRIL FOOL'S DAY! Wouldn't you know it?!

May: We decided to make an offer on a house and closed on the very last day of this month! I also finished up my grad school coursework.. hmm.. Hard to figure out which one of those is more exciting!!

June: PAINTED A TON!! and unpacked 40 billion boxes! Bruce, our beagle child, also was finally able to come live with us.

July: Took our first vacation to Panama City Beach. It was a nice way to relax and get revitalized after all of our hard work. I also proposed my thesis. And Jeff had an interview at his current place of work.

August: We celebrated our first year of marriage! What sweet bliss to still love one another so much! God has truly blessed us with gracious hearts toward one another. Also.. Started our new jobs!

September: Cheered on those Titans, even though they lost so much during this month. We tried to keep our heads up though..:)

October: We flew up to New Jersey to visit my brother and his family. Spent a couple of days in NYC! It was such fun to get away and explore the city together. Also, it was so fun to spend time with our nephews, John (now 5) & Andrew (2 1/2)! I also turned 25... Moved up an age bracket! (hah!) We also were able to travel to TTU to see some of our old friends from college. And we picked out a puppy for my parents.

November: Celebrated Thanksgiving! Tried to be realistic about the Titans actually making it to the Super Bowl.

December: Celebrated Christmas and Jeff's birthday! Also, we both made it through the first half the school year. It was so sweet to get to spend so much time together again!

Here are some little glimpses of our year!

Work Schmerk

Well, adulthood is in full swing. I now fully understand why adults are so stressed out all the time and always tell college students that they are living the best years of their lives. That used to make me feel sad, in a way, because I thought that I still could be happy even as an adult. I’ve come to realize that it’s really more about the freedom and accessibility to friends that is missed when you’re an adult.

One challenge of working is just trying to keep a positive spirit. There are so many things to complain about, especially when working with people. Let’s face it, people can be difficult, especially middle schoolers (a fact Jeff can attest to). Of course, I just survived two years of grad school so sometimes knowing that I can go home and not have to work on homework is enough to make me feel happy. :)

But I’ve realized that it’s easy to get bogged down in a to-do list and forget that we have opportunities to make an impact on people’s lives. I’m just an intern, but I interact with sweet kiddos all the time, and I hope the work that I do can help them have a more supported educational experience. A lot of times, I don’t necessarily think I’m the best fit for this job and tire of the process to becoming a more knowledgeable school psychologist. I want to know how to do everything, but it takes time and effort, which can be frustrating, especially when you have to learn so much in front of other people.

Things are okay, though. Beneath it all is a hope that God will lift us up when we feel weary and give us strength to get through the crazy days. And He will.

Here We Are

Well, the last three weeks of homeowning have been incredibly busy. We've painted most of our house... and have been unexpectedly been presented with challenges along the way. One day, when Jeff's camera and our computer are in the same location, I hope to make a blog post showing before and after photos, but since our computer desk is in the process of being shipped and Jeff's using our camera to teach 10-13 year olds about photography, I guess it will just have to wait. In the meantime, I thought I'd write a little blog about Bruce, our beagle. Bruce came into our lives a little over a year ago when he was born on the family farm. There were four other puppies, but Bruce just stole our hearts. Or mine, at least at first. Beagles are really LOUD barkers, but Bruce just sat there quietly looking at us. So, this little dog that traveled from Muddy Pond to us has just been such a great dog... and we've only known him a year!

Bruce has a lot of funny qualities. His skittishness is probably his most revealing quality. When we first got Bruce, he would barely walk down the street because he was terrified of every mailbox, every trashcan, every bicycle. But fortunately for us, people litter in the neighborhood, and we taught Bruce to be a good walker by providing him with trash to carry in his mouth. Nothing makes him prouder than carrying an empty beer can or Doritos bag down the street.

The following video clip is a sample of Bruce's fear of new things. When he came to stay at our apartment, we fed him his food in a tupperware bowl. Scary, right?



Silly Bruce!

His other redeeming qualities include being the cuddliest dog I have ever known. He is always up for resting next to you or my favorite... when he just flops down on you. He is so trusting and is always laying on his back with his paws up in the hair wanting his belly rubbed.

But, anyway, it's no secret that I'm a dog lover... but little Brucie has even managed to melt the hearts of the men in the family! :)

Closing Day

So tomorrow is our closing day for our house... We've been pretty busy this week (when we have actually been at our apartment!) packing and trying to get ready for the big move. When I started this blog, I couldn't help but think of the song "Closing Time":

Closing time, time for you to go out
To the places you will be from
Closing time, this room won’t be open
Till your brothers or your sisters come
So gather up your jackets, move it to the exits
I hope you have found a friend
Closing time, every new beginning
Comes from some other beginning’s end

We used to listen to this song at the end of church camp. Yeah, it's about a bar, but it has a good meaning about leaving one place to go to another. And this is kind of what it's like moving into our first home. This apartment has been great for us, and most importantly, it's been our first home. So while I'm so excited about our new place, I'm feeling a little sentimental about leaving the place where we got to experience most of our firsts as a married couple. Good bye, little apartment home.