Spring Has Sprung

I stole that title from my amazingly talented friend, Stephanie of Lifeography. She recently invited Hannah, my niece, Haley, and a friend Abby out for a photo shoot with another equally talented friend and photographer, Deb Schwedhelm.

Their photographs were spectacular!

You can check them out at Deb's post: Here today, Gone Tomorrow
and at Stephanie's page: Spring has Sprung

Here are a few of my favs (although it was hard to pick).

Merry Christmas

I've done terribly at keeping our family blog updated. We've had a busy year! We had so much to update you on that in lieu of a traditional Christmas card, we put together a compilation of our year using an Animoto to share some special pictures, videos and memories.

New Fall Recipes

I've just turned the heat on in my house! It's getting nice and chili outside and I'm in the mood for some comfort food. Here are 2 of my new favorite recipes. I did not write these - just adapted both of them and changed some ingridents:)

Sausage & Barley Soup
Adapted from Cooking Light Magazine
By adapted I just mean I doubled parts of it. It's so good - fast and easy and all my family loves it. Serve it with some nice crusty bread or Chris' favorite - grilled cheese.

Fresh, delicate baby spinach doesn't hold up to hours of cooking, so it is added at the last minute. Pureeing the vegetables allows you to drastically cut cooking time while maintaining all the rich flavors of the vegetables.

Prep: 5 minutes; Cook: 18 minutes

Preparation Time: 5 minutes
Cooking Time: 18 minutes
Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 1 1/2 cups)

Ingridents
Cooking spray
* 6 ounces turkey breakfast sausage (or sweet Italian sausage)
2 1/2 cups frozen bell pepper stir-fry (such as Birds Eye) (I use trader Joe’s tri colored frozen peppers)
2 cups water
* 1 (14 1/2-ounce) can Italian-style stewed tomatoes, undrained and chopped
* 1/4 cup uncooked quick-cooking barley
* 1 cup coarsely chopped fresh baby spinach

Directions

1. Heat a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add sausage; cook 3 minutes or until browned. Remove from heat.

2. While sausage cooks, place stir-fry and 2 cups water in a blender; process until smooth. Add stir-fry puree, tomatoes, and barley to sausage in pan. Bring mixture to a boil over high heat; cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer 10 minutes. Stir in spinach; cook 1 minute or until spinach wilts.

ADAPTED: When I made this soup, I made some adjustments and doubled parts of the recipe. The *starred ingredients I doubled – made this soup even more hearty!

Email me if you want a PDF that you can print!

Beef Stew. Make this. It's delicious. It is adapted from a receipe from the Food Network by Paula Dean called Old-Time Beef Stew

Ingredients
2 pounds stew beef (I use Kosher Beef from Trader Joe’s)
2 tablespoons Olive Oil
1 ¾ Cup Low Sodium Beef Broth
¼ Cup Dry Red Wine (I use a merlot)
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 cloves garlic, peeled
2 bay leaves
1 medium onion, sliced
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon pepper (I use white pepper)
1/2 teaspoon paprika
Dash ground allspice or ground cloves (I use allspice)
3 large carrots, sliced
3 ribs celery, chopped
2 tablespoons cornstarch

Directions
In a heavy bottom Dutch oven, heat oil (till you drip some water on it and it sizzles) Brown meat on all sides until you have a nice sear. Add broth, wine, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, bay leaves, onion, salt, sugar, pepper, paprika, and allspice. Cover and simmer 1 hour. Remove bay leaves and garlic clove. Add carrots and celery. Cover and cook 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes longer. To thicken gravy, remove ½ cup of hot liquid. Using a separate bowl, combine 1/4 cup water and cornstarch until smooth. Mix with a little hot liquid and return mixture to pot. Stir and cook until bubbly and slightly thickened. Serve over noodles or mashed potatoes.

Hannah's 6th Birthday

My darling little girl has turned 6. I really can't believe it. She is smart and funny, kind and caring, sweet as can be and just a beauty from the inside out. We know we are very blessed!

Here is a little video/slide show of her birthday festivities. The night before her birthday, Chris and I snuck into her room and decorated it pink top to bottom! She was so excited when she woke up in the morning. The day of her birthday she has Noah (her cousin) over for breakfast, which was french toast with blueberries. Then we all went to the local water park, Ocean breeze! Haley came back with us and the girls played the Game of Life and had chick-fil-a and skinny dip frozen yogurt for dessert. For the girls' birthday party, we had it at Hunt Club Farm for a cowgirl themed party!

The Sandifer Cousins Visit!

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Happy Father's Day

New Puppies

Well, it's a long story. We got 2 dogs, didn't know one was in heat, took them both to get fixed and our female was pregnant. Our options were abort or keep. I went back and forth (really - I didn't want puppies) but my continence about the aborting kept weighing on me. We got 2 older, trained dogs that don't shed because my family wanted dogs badly and that was my sacrifice (due to my allergies). The fact that we got one dog, let along 2 dogs was big. Then I got a pregnant dog - and the fact that I am sitting in my living room with 6 dogs right now is quite ironic. Ariel had 4 puppies. 2 girls and 2 boys. They are pretty darn cute (for now - all they do is roll around and whine). When they start walking/running and barking we'll see how I feel about them:) We will keep them for 8 weeks and then find new homes for them. Hannah has named the girls Chloe and Coral and the boys Triton & Sebastian (since the parents are "Ariel the Little Mermaid" and "Jiminy Cricket When you Wish upon a Star" we went with a Little Mermaid & Pinocchio theme). My mom has fallen in love with the runt, Sebastian (which she would like to change his name to "Mr. Skeffington"). He has been a whole ounce smaller than the rest since the beginning. I believe she will be taking him home!