Fall Recipes

I have been looking forward to making these delicious soups. Both of these are family favorites. Try them out.

Autumn Chowder

6 slices bacon, chopped or 2 cups of ham, cubed

1 cup onion, chopped

1 cup water

3 cups potatoes, diced

1 carrot, sliced

1 tsp instant chicken bouillon

3 cups milk

2 cans corn, drained

½ tsp pepper

3 cups Cheddar cheese

3 Tbsp flour

Fry bacon. Add onions. Brown until bacon is crisp. Stir in water, potatoes, carrots, and bouillon. Simmer until potatoes are tender, about 15 to 20 minutes (it goes faster with the lid on). Stir in milk, corn, and pepper. Heat until simmering. Mix cheese and flour and add to soup mixture. Stir constantly until cheese is melted. 

(image copied from the web...it doesn't look good but it SO is)

Zuppa Toscana Soup

(From the Olive Garden)

1 lb sausage

2 large potatoes cubed

¾ cup chopped onion

1 ½ tsp minced garlic

2 cups kale- washed, dried, shredded

2 Tbsp chicken bouillon powder

1 quart water

1/3 cup heavy cream

½-1 tsp crushed red pepper

Cook sausage. Place onions in large saucepan. Cook over medium heat until onions are almost clear. Add garlic to onion, cook an additional minute. Add chicken bouillon, water, potatoes and simmer for 15 minutes. Add sausage, kale, and cream. Simmer for 4 minutes. Serve and enjoy!!

All work and no play...

...would make for a dull summer! So of course our remodeling project wasn't all we did this summer. We went to Lagoon TWICE!! These pictures are from the whole Thomas Family Lagoon Trip! It was amazing. Seriously so fun!.

 Gordon thinks Lagoon is the best place on earth! It is pure joy for me just to see his face and how excited he gets. With his cousins with him it was heaven!

Edison did much better this trip than last time. He was not scared one bit. It was great to have everyone there (it would have been even better if we had Zach and Katie with us!)

 Chad and Katie with Grant and Lily.

 Maren and Brett with Fisher and Sarah.

Most of us together on the Tidal Wave.

The best was watching all the kids on the bumper cars. The older ones could get around pretty good but the younger ones just kept going in circles.

Thanks again family for the good time!!

Where do I even start?

Before

During

Before

The project that has taken most of our summer is redoing the floors in our house. We are still a long way from finished but we have also made a lot of progress. When we moved in we knew we were going to have to replace the carpet because the previous owner had cats and the whole upstairs stunk. Luckily the basement was remodeled after they moved out and before we moved in so we didn't need to worry about that.

Chris's parents dishwasher leaked and ruined the floor in front of it and that floor is not made anymore so they had to tear it all up and they gave it to us! Yeah! Well, when we tore the carpets up I don't think we were quite prepared for how bad it would be underneath.

During

Do you see all those nasty stains? It smelled so much worse (which I didn't think was possible.) It made me sick to think about how we had been walking and playing on this carpet for the past month! Anyway, we ended up tearing out all the sub-floor too. What a project! So this supposedly "free floor" we were getting wasn't quite turning out that way. We also had to knock down all the rock on the fireplace to get the boards out. After Chris's hard work, this is what the family room looks like today.

I know we still have to finish the fireplace and the trim but at least I have a floor.
Now the kitchen and dining room area we decided we wanted tile. It is still not in yet. This is what it looks like today. (literally I took this picture two minutes ago so forgive the mess.

(I have also been sanding and painting our table and chairs. That is another project for another post.)
This room has been even more of a nightmare because, as with most old houses, nothing is level. As you can see from this picture again...

The previous owners had put in some sort of plaster to try to even things out but it was all breaking up and cracking everywhere so we tore it out. We thought we had it level and put the backerboard down (the white boards you see under the table are for laying tile) and we would find it still wasn't level. So we would tear it up level it again and again and again. I think finally the dining room is level. we are still working on leveling the kitchen. The problem is it takes a good two hours to do a small area and we have to wait till the kids are in bed so it can dry with no little feet walking on it. Anyway, I feel like we take 2 steps forward 1 step back, 2 steps forward 1 step back...but hopefully it is finished soon. I told Chris I wanted to have a Halloween party at our house so it has to be done before then. Wish us luck!