Long=Short

It seems that no matter how many days I get in a weekend (2-4 depending) it goes by so slowly (which I love) but it's gone so quickly (which I hate). I don't very well understand this time thing we live with. It's okay though. Another full weekend of being pregnant. Might have been my last one. Who knows. Of course I found more things I wanted/needed to get done. Thing 1 was putting hardware on the cabinets and drawers. When we first moved in it took me a few days to notice there were none on the cabinets and I asked our friends and she said they just never got around to putting them on, although it was always something they meant to do. Oh how I know how that one goes :) Me in my full pregnant (not showered) glory decided we'd go buy the stuff on Sunday morning and I'd get to it that day.

Since there was nothing on there I got the fun task of measuring, marking, drilling, screwing, knobbing and admiring. Well, until I realized the screws would not be long enough for the drawers...I'll make that trip to Home Depot tonight! With a lot of the projects I've been doing I've been getting asked why Joe isn't doing them. It isn't that he can't do the work. He is a very brilliant and bright man. However, in my current state I am a little beyond nit picky. Actually, I'm always like that. If he does it and something doesn't look right to me, I wouldn't let it go, but if I do it and I mess up, I can only blame myself. As they say "if you want something done right (at least to your standards), do it yourself".

After a lot of work (and still not finishing the job) I was tired. Very tired. But the troops had to be fed. By troops I mean Joe, Paxton and our friend Brandon. But at least two of them are really good eaters and I had already planned on making another new soup so I went to work. I didn't do any prep work so it took me a little bit longer then it should have to make but by the looks on the faces of the big boys (not Paxton, but that is another story) it was worth the time. The second new recipe I tried is a copy cat of Olive Garden's Zuppa Toscana. It was really REALLY good. Served along side some homemade multigrain garlic croutons (well, semi homemade) it was pretty darn fantastic. The recipe says it serves 6 but in my beautiful Fiestaware (don't you just love how pretty food looks served in/on it) I am getting several more servings. And this included feeding a preggo and two fully grown men. Brandon had two bowls, Joe had one, I had one and Paxton had threw a massive tantrum during dinner and wasted a small bowl. Then I filled a big thing for Joe to take to work and still had enough for 3-4 more servings. That is going in the freezer today :)

Anyway, long story short. It was good. Thanks to Alexis for sharing the recipe!

Zuppa Toscana
servings: 6

Ingredients
1 pound bulk mild Italian sausage
1 1/4 teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes
4 slices bacon, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 large onion, diced
1 tablespoon minced garlic
5 (13.75 ounce) cans low sodium chicken broth
6 potato, thinly sliced
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 bunch fresh kale, tough stems removed

Directions
1. Cook the Italian sausage and red pepper flakes in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat until crumbly, browned, and no longer pink, 10 to 15 minutes. Drain and set aside.
2. Cook the bacon in the same Dutch oven over medium heat until crisp, about 10 minutes. Drain, leaving a few tablespoons of drippings with the bacon in the bottom of the Dutch oven. Stir in the onions and garlic; cook until onions are soft and translucent, about 5 minutes.
3. Pour the chicken broth into the Dutch oven with the bacon and onion mixture; bring to a boil over high heat. Add the potatoes, and boil until fork tender, about 20 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium and stir in the heavy cream and the cooked sausage; heat through. Mix the kale into the soup just before serving.

After dinner and football and cleaning up and reinstalling cabinet safety locks it was time for carseats. Husband vacuumed my car out and it was such a wonderful job well done (Thank you Love....it really does look amazing!). I went out and went to snapping. We moved Paxton's seat to the outside (talk about some great guilt...what makes new baby so special to get to go in the middle where Paxton has resided for almost two years now???) and put Emory's in the middle. It just looks weird. Thank God for third row seating, that's all I've got to say!

A little more laundry, a little more cleaning, a lot more resting and bed time commenced. This weekend I also returned two platters that needed to go back to their rightful owners, cooked about 14 pounds of meat to freeze (and it froze so beautifully, I can't wait to take a picture just to show how you DO have room, even if you just have a small freezer).

Time to get ready for our 39+ week appointment. Go team baby!