Playing In The Leaves and Great Minestrone Soup

Gotta love my husband sometimes. I've been trying to study for my stupid ESOL Praxis exam next Saturday. So, he took the kids to the park and to lunch for a few hours. I was very productive while they were away. I figured out what code-switching is, negative transfer, register (it's not what you think...has not a thing to do with your voice! Who knew?), minimal pairs, palatalization (say that three times fast!), and pidginization (don't ya just LOVE that word?!), amongst other things.

When they got back, Robin decided to rake up the leaves on our front lawn. The boys joined him and decided to run and jump in the big leaf piles. They had so much fun diving in and pretending to "swim".


















Seeing as he'd done so much, I decided to get dinner together. Robin's usually in charge of dinner on weekends since I do it all week, but I jumped in and did it tonight. I made up a recipe for minstrone. I had minestrone almost every single day when I was growing up and I grew to despise it. It's very healthy for you, but the thought of eating that any longer than I had to made me want to gag. Anway, I made it and it was DELISH! Definitely not what my mom used to make. I used the same elements, but added my own touches. I liked it. The kids gobbled it up, including Madeleine who ususally only eats a certain percribed number of foods and recipes. She ate something with spinach in it! Can you believe it?! It had to be good for her to eat it if she tolerated spinach and asked for seconds! :)

Here's my impromptu recipe. Measurements aren't exact as I like to just eyeball it most of the time; just like mamma did! :)


My Minestrone: AKA The Best Minestrone, EVAH!


2 celery stalks, minced
4 carrots (mine were on the small/thin side), minced
1 medium onion, minced
2 cloves garlic minced
1 lb sausage, casings removed
1 can (16oz?) red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 can (16oz?) navy beans
1 box of Chicken broth (I think it's about 4 cups or so)
1 can (16oz?) diced tomatoes
2 boxes frozen chopped spinach
Olive oil

On medium heat,

*sautee the onion and garlic in the olive oil until onions are translucent.
*add carrots and celery and continue sauteeing until they are soft
*add sausage. Cook until browned
*add the kidney and navy beans
*add tomatoes
*add spinach
*cover mixture with the Chicken Broth

turn up the burner so that the minestrone comes to a boil (helps melt the spinach that's still frozen!). Let boil a little bit then turn down heat to simmer.

Simmer as long as you need. I let it simmer about 1.5 hours, but could have gone longer.

When ready to serve, take half the mixture, picking out sausage, and put into food processor. Pulse until chunky/smooth, add back to the pot.

Cook up some noodles and add to the minestrone.

Top with shaved parmigiano reggiano cheese. Serve with good crusty bread.

YUM!
I'd post the lovely picture of my meal, but Blogger's being difficult again and I can't seem to load up more than the three pictures of the boys. :(


The kids played so hard today, that by late afternoon, they were cranky and hungry. Poor William got upset about something, proclaimed he was going to bed and proceeded to fall asleep on the floor of the living room in a corner. Again, I'd show you the picture, but Blogger won't let me. Maybe I can update later!