Tonights Dinner - Zuppa Toscana

This is one of our most favorite meals! :) I love to cook and hopefully I can start adding some of our recipes to the blog!! We love soups and chili's even in the summer time. Baileys favorite is White Chicken Chili, a recipe that Deana gave to me, we make it often! If you love Olive Gardens Zuppa Toscana, try this recipe YUMMMMM


ZUPPA TOSCANA

4-5 links italian sausage
5 potatoes
1 chopped onion
6 slices bacon
1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic
2 cups kale - washed, dried, and shredded
2 + tablespoons chicken base
1 quart water
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream (i usually use half & half)




Preheat oven to 300 degrees F
Layer the sausage links onto a baking sheet and bake for 25 minutes, or until done. Cut in half length-wise, then cut at an angle into 1/2 inch slices. I bake them or in the summer I will break them out of their cases and brown them in my pot after the onions and bacon are done.
Place onions and bacon in a large saucepan and cook over medium heat until onions are almost clear.
Remove bacon and crumble. Set aside.
Add garlic to the onions and cook an additional 1 minute. Add chicken base or bouillon, water, and potatoes, simmer 15 minutes or until potatoes are soft.
Add crumbled bacon, sausage, kale, and cream. I usually cook until the kale is soft. YUMMM

Memphis Zoo Visit

Aaron and I took some time off work the week after July 4th. On Monday we took Bailey and our good friends Robynn & Rex and their little boy Tyler, who is Baileys age, to Wild River Country.... the kids had so much fun going down all of the water slides and swimming around everywhere, it was totally fun!

The next day we drove to Memphis and went to the zoo. I was really impressed with their zoo!! It was clean, well kept and big! We had a pretty good time except for the fact that it was so HOT!! We drank tons of water and sipped on red slushies the whole time we were there. Here are some pictures from the zoo trip.... notice the one of Taylor having a melt down while we were watching the birds. All in all it was a super fun day!

This morning

This morning I was helping Bailey pick out some clothes to wear (which is ALWAYS such a long drawn out process.... you would think she is in high school or something) and I could hear the sounds of plastic moving around, so I ask Taylor what she is doing and she does not respond..... I go in the office and find her like this She had gotten into my supply of toilet paper and was "stacking" as she said.... I tell ya, if I take my eyes off of her for one second she is into everything.... thats why her nickname is TAYZILLA! :)

I asked Bailey if I could take her picture this morning and this is the response I got from her

Nice huh? Good morning to you mom! :)

First Post

Everyone has asked us to start a blog, so here it is...... we will see