strawberry soup

Soup for breakfast? Yes, please!

This is ridiculously easy. And pretty. And yummy. If you make it the night before, it can chill in the fridge overnight. I'll confess that I didn't do that. I just made it up in the morning. 

Ingredients:

2.5-3 cups strawberries (I didn't measure. If you're making it the morning of, frozen berries work best.)

2 cups vanilla almond milk (or regular milk)

1 cup strawberry-flavored kefir (or cream)

0.5 cups vanilla-flavored yogurt (or plain yogurt)

If you have an immersion blender, combine all the ingredients in a large bowl and blend. If you don't have a stick blender, you can use a regular blender. You may have to work in batches though. 

Enjoy!  

bacon cheeseburger pasta

I'm not a gourmet chef. I'm a schlep-it-all-in-the-pan and get-the-food-on-the-table sort of cook.

I'm certainly not a food photographer.

And I don't Pinterest.

But I know a lot of people do Pinterest. And I know a recipe needs a picture before it can be pinned.

So...voila! Bacon cheeseburger pasta!

I'd already stowed the leftovers in the fridge before I remembered to take a pic--see slightly "frosty" look the container has?

This is an easy recipe, and everyone ate it (yay!). I saw the original recipe in a magazine years ago, but I've long since lost it. I just recreated it tonight.

Bacon Cheeseburger Pasta
1 lb. ground beef
4 slices bacon
1 15-oz. can tomato sauce
8 oz. spaghetti, cooked
1 cup shredded cheddar (or whatever cheese you like) seasonings (more on that in a minute)

Brown ground beef in a skillet. Drain. Cook bacon until crisp, drain off grease, and crumble into beef. Season however you like your hamburgers seasoned. Tonight I used salt, pepper, garlic, onion powder, cumin, and a chipotle barbecue spice rub I have. But use what you have and like. Add tomato sauce and spaghetti noodles. Allow to simmer for 5-10 minutes. Add cheese and allow to melt.

That's it. Pretty simple.

(I would have LOVED to add sauteed mushrooms to this. My family would kill me for that. But if yours won't, give it a whirl--and send me some! I'm sure sauteed onions would be great too--but don't send me that.)

it's fall, y'all

We were sick.

Then it rained. And rained. For days.

But our reward for surviving all of that? Today!

Today with its absolutely perfect weather.

I wish I had a better camera. Because it's gorgeous here, and the iPod doesn't do it justice. But here's my best effort to share. (I'll try to post more pics as we move further into the fall season and the colors come out more.)

The shade of blue the sky turns in autumn is one of my favorite colors on earth

Sarah's artwork

Sarah got an art set for her birthday. She was eager to try it out today. 

She wanted me to share her first picture using the set. 

dawning of a new decade

I have a ten-year-old.

Pause. Deep breath. Let me let that sink in for a minute.

I have a ten-year-old.

Yeah, it doesn't sound any less weird.

Part of me can't imagine that she could possibly, in any universe, be ten. She was four just ten minutes ago, I swear. Two just a couple of minutes before that. So she was only a baby about half an hour ago, right? Right?!

Okay, so no, I guess not.

And yet another part of me feels she always been here, always been a part of my life, always been a part of me. It's hard to put into words exactly.

We had cake and gifts at my parents' house yesterday. We were planning to go to the Apple Festival today, but she's sick. She's currently sleeping on the couch. (The only good thing about her being sick--she sleeps pretty much constantly when she feels bad. And that seems to help her recover quickly. I'm hoping that will be the case this time.)


Since I don't have fun Apple Festival pictures to post, I'll just post a few other photos of my girl who is now a decade old (nope, not getting any less weird).

Oct. 4, 2004

Sept., 2006

July, 2008

December, 2010

Oct., 2012

Oct. 3, 2014

Happy birthday, Sarah! (And feel better soon!)