Soup and Stuff

Italian Sausage Soup

I made this delicious soup today--I know!  It's not exactly the soup-making time of the year but for some reason it was just calling to me.  I am really glad I did!  So good!

I made a few changes to the recipe:

• Used way more garlic than called for--we love garlic round these parts!
• Used 2 cans of chicken broth and 2 cans of beef broth (made my own using Herb-OX granules and cubes--way less sodium.
• Used 2 cans of stewed tomatoes
• Used frozen spinach instead of fresh
• Used 1 chopped onion
• Did not add any other salt
• Added a few shakes of red pepper flakes

Love, love, love this soup!! And will definitely be making it in the future.

I made a trip to Kohl's today and used a birthday gift card from my dear friends, G&C--they were so kind to throw me a surprise 42nd birthday party at their house a couple of weeks ago--and I was able to get the 7 qt. enamel coated cast-iron Dutch Oven pictured above.  I have wanted one for so long but just could never justify the expense.  So thankful for the generosity of my wonderful friends.

I think we've got everything ready for Michael to go back to school.  He is not a huge fan of school.  It makes me so sad because he really loved his first school and teachers (K, 1st, & 2nd).  In the town we live in 3rd, 4th & 5th grades are separated into another school on the other side of town and neither one of us were particularly impressed with this second school.  In 3rd grade he was dealt a female teacher that didn't seem to like boys very much. She definitely showed a partiality to the girls in her class.  Nothing you could put your finger on and say "A ha!" And around the parents she was always sticky sweet but my son sure felt it.

Fourth grade was better.  His teacher was just the right amount of firm and fun and he had a pretty good year.  Fifth grade not so much.  I remember one assignment was a book report where he had to give a little speech and make a puppet to use while he was talking.  He made a puppet of Martin Luther King, Jr. out of felt and used a stick for a handle.  Yes, it looked like it was made by a fifth grader--maybe it wasn't his teacher's idea of "art" but I was ready to tear her a new one when he asked if she was going to put it up on the board (like she had with a lot of the other puppets) and she told him that it wasn't really creative enough to go on the board.  I was never so happy to say good-the-hell-by to a school before.

This year he is going back to the other side of town to middle school for 6th, 7th & 8th grades.  There are going to be some big changes but I hope they will be good changes.  I am going to think positive.

I have to say I am having such fun going around to all the different blogs out there.  Oh my goodness!  It is so amazing to be able to see glimpses of different places.  But, I am a little afraid that I may be developing a bit of an addiction.  Anybody else having any trouble with this?  I bet I'm not the only one ;-)