Next Best Thing

What can you do when the closest Olive Garden is 3 hours away? Pretend you're there by making your own Zuppa Toscana.

Olive Garden's Zuppa Toscana Soup

Recipe

• 1 lb. spicy Italian sausage – crumbled
• 1/2 lb. smoked bacon – chopped
• 1 qt. water
• (2) 14.5 oz. cans (about 3 2/3 cups) chicken broth
• 2 lg. russet potatoes – scrubbed clean, cubed
• 2 garlic cloves – peeled, crushed
• 1 med. onion – peeled, chopped
• 2 cups chopped kale OR Swiss chard
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• salt and pepper – to taste

Directions

1. Brown sausage in a pan over medium to medium-high heat, breaking up into small pieces as it cooks.
2. Drain sausage and set to the side.
3. Brown bacan in a pan over medium-high heat. Be careful not to cook crispy.
4. Drain bacon and set to the side.
5. Place broth, water, garlic, potatoes, and onion in a pot.
6. Simmer over medium heat until potatoes are tender.
7. Add sausage and bacon to the soup.
8. Simmer for 10 minutes.
9. Add kale and cream to pot.
10. Season with salt and pepper.
11. Heat thoroughly.

Add some salad and breadsticks and you just might fool yourself into thinking you're actually there. (I just can't believe I made this today - mid-June - to cut the chill from the air.)

A Whole New World

Our baby girl said she was having trouble seeing things and didn't pass the vision screening they did at the end of the school year. We took her to Lewiston for an eye exam. Our good friend from Shelley High - Danny Evans - is now an optometrist and did a fabulous job of making Rio feel comfortable at her first ever eye appointment. Here's Rio getting her eyes checked:

and picking out frames with Dr. Evans.

Rio can see again and looks adorable in her new glasses!

Snack Support

I told Micah that I'm going to be trying to eat better and exercise more with the hopes of getting rid of the extra pounds I've put on recently. He knows that my biggest weakness with that idea is snacks so this afternoon he put all the snacks I enjoy into 150 calorie baggies, labeled with the positives like low calories, high protein, or high fiber and the negatives such as high fat, sodium, or high fructose corn syrup. He is so supportive! I'll post again in 30 days with an update. Wish me luck!

New Blog

My sister, Ellisa, and I have started a new blog as a way to journal and celebrate our differences and similarities. She's living in the Bay Area in Cal. and I'm living the small town life in Grangeville. You're welcome to peek in and see what we're up to.

City Mouse, Country Mouse

Number Ten

Love one another and you will be happy. It's as simple and as difficult as that.
~Michael Leunig

Our wedding was many years ago.
The celebration continues to this day.

Happy Anniversary Micah!

Pork Carnitas

My big brother, Justin, shared with me this recipe for pork carnitas. We had it for dinner tonight and it was so deliciously yummy that I'm thinking about opening a taco truck on the corner. Thanks for a great dinner Justin!

Pork Carnitas

Put a pork roast in a crock pot and cover it with water. Cut up an onion and put in there. Zest an orange and put that and the peel in as well. Boil on low for 3 hours. Add in a can of coke and keep boiling for another couple hours. Just be sure to watch it through all this to make sure the liquid isn’t all boiling off. If it’s looking low just add more water. When it’s ready, drain off the liquid and shred. Put the shredded pork in a roasting pan and put in the oven on 400 degrees for a half hour. Check it every 10 min, stirring it up. You could occasionally pour some of the liquid that it boiled in to keep it moist. The roasting sugar from the coke will make the tips of the meat crispy.

Take it out and serve in warmed corn or flour tortillas with fresh pico de gallo (salsa would be ok, but fresh tomatoes, onion, cilantro is AWESOME on this). You could add guacamole if you want. Cut up some limes and serve on the side. People can squish as much lime juice onto them as they want. (Great with hot sauce and/or chili peppers).

I made these just like it's described above except I used root beer instead of Coke. I made pico de gallo for the first time using this recipe:

Pico de Gallo

8-10 Roma tomatoes (seeded)
□ 1/2-1 red onion (to taste)
□ 1 jalapeno pepper (or more to taste)
□ 2 medium cloves garlic
□ juice of one lime
□ 1 tablespoon olive oil
□ 4 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
□ 1 teaspoon coarse salt
□ 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

Seed and dice tomatoes. Chop onion, jalapeno and garlic to a fine consistency. To these ingredients, add the fresh cilantro, salt, pepper, olive oil and lime. Mix well.

Cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours. Best if served the next day.

I made this just like it says to, but didn't have 3 hours to let it sit. I served it right away on the carnitas and it was delicious! We had corn and rice as our side dishes. Enjoy!

Family Night

Hey, everybody, it's family night!
Before we moved to Grangeville we had a hard time having consistent family home evenings. I can think of a few reasons (excuses) like Micah's erratic schedule and having very small children. But since we've been here we've had it every week without fail! The kids really look forward to Monday nights and are great at reminding us. We have a lesson about the gospel and then a fun activity. Last night we had a surprise visit from the missionaries who taught us about the Savior's gift to us and then we played "Sorry".

Of course, having a yummy treat helps the kids remember and get excited about FHE too.

Family Night Song