This is a great recipe to add to your collection for winter soups.  I got this recipe from my mom and her friend.  You can find it here at allrecipes too. I've made it a couple of times, and it is delicious.  

My mom's friend makes a couple of suggestions for changes, which I will include at the bottom**.  

I didn't follow all of them.  I added a few more potatoes like she suggested, and I used fresh kale or mustard greens (whichever was available at the store) instead of spinach.  I also used Bob Evans Original Sausage instead of Italian.  The pepper flakes give it a good kick.

Super-Delicious Zuppa Toscana RECIPE

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 chicken broth
6 potato, thinly sliced
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 bunch fresh spinach, tough stems removed  (Use Kale or Mustard Greens instead)

Directions

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.

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.

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 spinach into the soup just before serving.

**Double it. Substitute Kale in place of spinach. Just buy kale in the bag that's already chopped and use about 1/2 to 3/4 of bag. Use 50% more sausage. Buy the "Italian" sausage roll, not HOT and just add more red pepper flakes for more heat.  Put like 2 or 3 more potatoes in than it calls for.

Enjoy!

The Pink and Gold Throne and how it came to be.

My girlfriend, Meg and I recently hosted an over-the-top, Pinterest style, pink and gold themed shower for our girlfriend (who is also Meg's sis-in-law). We spent months planning for this shower, and we were so excited when the day finally arrived.  More on that soon.

But until then, I wanted to share the "throne" we created for this shower.  We got this idea from Pinterest and weren't exactly sure if or how we were going to pull it off.  We even had a simple back up chair if needed.

But a couple weeks before the shower, my mom and I were in a small florist/antique shop looking for something entirely different.  And, BAM!, there it was.  Sitting there.  The perfect candidate for our "throne."

After some time and deliberation, we were able to go back, and pick up the chair.  But how to make it pink and gold? I called a friend.  She's excellent with things like this.  There wasn't enough time (or money) to reupholster. And the chair was too complicated to make or purchase a slip cover.  So she suggested that I google "painting cloth furniture."

And that's when I came across this post called "Painting Upholstered Furniture." Don't you just love blogs? :) It was super helpful.  She had just painted a velvet chair. Giving great tips, her steps were easy to follow.

I went to the store to pick up the paint. They didn't have the exact type she mentioned in her blog. But I found something similar called Tulip Soft Fabric Paint (remember puff paint?! same paint company people!)  I grabbed almost all of it they had in the pink color I was going for and was on my way back home.

That night, I taped all around the wood with masking tape and then covered the rest of the upholstery so I could begin by painting the wood.  Using a gold color spray paint, the wood was suddenly no more.  This chair was already taking shape as our "throne"!!

After letting that dry over night, I took all of the tape and covering off to begin tackling the fabric.  Watering the paint down, I used a paint brush and started painting it on the fabric.  At first, it wasn't the color I was hoping for. But I tried not to panic and just kept painting.  It darkened while drying, which was a relief.

The plaid from the upholstery ended up showing through, but it seemed to give a cool effect to the chair.  We decided not to chance it since it turned out so well and only put one coat on the chair.  You're supposed to sand the fabric a little once it's dry to help it be soft faster.  But it should soften up again with some wear too.  It's not stiff or crusty.  It's just a little not soft.

And when the day of our shower came, it looked so good in the room.  It just POPPED!

Here's Meg testing out the chair, I mean throne, before the party.  I think we were just a little giddy (and possibly tired from running on 4 hours of sleep.) But we were ready and finished with over 30 minutes  to spare before guests started arriving.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

This post is waaay over due... by almost a month exactly.  But I couldn't let it go by entirely without mentioning how thankful I am for my mom.  She and I share not only our birthday month, but our birthdays are just three days apart (...and a couple few years).  So we have often shared birthday cakes, and in recent years, birthday lunches, dinners, going to the movies, etc.

For my dad's birthday, I wrote 10 things I love about him, and I'd like to do the same for my mom.  So here it is!!

TEN THINGS I LOVE ABOUT MY MOM

10. She's a good listener.

9. She means what she says.  She would always tell us growing up to let our yes mean yes and our no mean no, and she's pretty much lived it herself.

8.  She's the best Grammy there is.  She loves spending time with her grandkids and telling stories about them later.  She was so excited the moment she knew we were expecting that we went to Babys R Us that night! ... which leads us right into #7. (p.s. Not to be confused with Grandma or any of the Great Grandma's because they are all GREAT too!)

7. She gives from the heart.  No doubt her love language is giving, and she loves to share. Whether it be left overs, giving time or going shopping, she is a big giver.

6.  She likes to make an event out of anything.  Her and my dad have even had a Superbowl party for the past several years, and they don't even like or watch football! Growing up, we used to have big New Year's Eve parties with our family friends and church friends that were a blast! I remember one time going to see a movie just the two of us.  We couldn't decide which movie to see. So it became a double hitter, and we watched both! I'm pretty sure that may have happened more than once since then too. :)

5. Although he might "give her grief" as my nephew says, I know that she loves my dad, and he loves her.  What a testimony that has been to me.  Watching them struggle through life and survive has been a privilege to witness.

4.  She's a fighter and a survivor.  Living through the loss of several close family members, she continues to keep their memories alive while still making new memories with those of us still here.

3. I know that several of these already listed can be only attributed to her faith in Jesus Christ.  I can not be more thankful for my parents finding Christ, breaking patterns and living in a new direction for us to follow.

2. She's a great card player.  We use to play cards... euchre, hearts, spades, gin rummy and even a little poker on rare occasions (I hated poker. Even if it's only for beans or pennies, I HATE to lose them. But I digress.)  I have great memories of everyone playing cards at my grandparents' house.  And they would always talk about my mom playing cards since she was 5 (or maybe younger). She's good.  Let's just say that.

1. I love how much my mom loves me, my brother and sister.  I remember Miss Repar saying that if my mom came to the school, they better look out because she was about to protect one of her kids.  She was like a momma bear all the way.

My mom use to tell us that all she ever wanted to be was a wife and a mom.  I heard her say that often.  And, I don't think she meant it to be profound.  But really it is.  We were wanted. We were loved. She made decisions and sacrifices to put us first. She did what was best for us even if it didn't seem like it at the time.  What an amazing and constant gift.  Maybe simple but not always easy for sure.  That is definitely what I want to pass on to my daughter as well.

2012 Fall Family Photos

Speaking of my love for pictures, we had family pictures taken this past October.  I have so relished looking through them and deciding which to print.  And since it was so hard to narrow them down, I ordered a photo book for us to enjoy.  Here's some of our favorites.

All pictures by Junebug Images.