Baked Potato Soup

I told you every once in a while I will sneak in a recipe or something that readers might actually USE, since I am mostly on hear to talk about my "Amazing Offspring" as the blog is titled.

I got this recipe from http://www.allrecipes.com/ where people can submit recipes and then others can review them after they have made them.  I usually find one that looks good and that I have the ingredients for and I quickly read the reviews to see any changes other people made.  The original recipe was for 4 people, but the great thing about allrecipes is that you can change the serving size and the ingredients will be changed for you.  I wanted 8 servings so that we could have leftovers!  Plus I had a 3 lb bag of potatoes I needed to use!

Prep time:  10 minutes  Cook time:  20 minutes  Servings:  8

Ingredients
6 bacon strips (I used 8 because my husband is a bacon fiend)
2 small onions, chopped (I used 1 b/c my kids don't like onions)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup and 2 TBS all purpose flour
2 tsp salt
2 tsp dried basil
1 tsp pepper
6 cups chicken broth (you can buy carton broth, use boullion cubes or the powdered stuff that you add to water-I used cubes)
4 large baked potatoes, cubed (I used a 3 lb bag and I boiled them with the skins on)
2 cups half-and-half cream (I used whole milk because I had it on hand)
1 tsp hot pepper sauce
Shredded Cheddar cheese
Any other topping you might like (chives, sour cream, etc.)

Prepare the potatoes so they are cooked and ready to use (either boil or bake them).  In a large saucepan, cook bacon until crisp.  Drain bacon but keep 2 TBS drippings.  Set bacon aside b/c this will be used as a topping.  Saute onion and garlic in the drippings until tender.  Stin in flour, salt, basil and pepper and mix well.  Add chicken broth and bring to a boil.  Boil for 2 minutes.  Then add the potatoes, cream and hot pepper sauce.  Heat through but do not boil.  Add toppings as desired:  bacon, cheese and anything else you may want.

As I was typing this I realized I changed quite a bit of this recipe in small amounts.  We really enjoyed this soup and it was so filling we were able to eat only the soup and sliced fruit for dinner and were not hungry later.  I had enough left over to have for a couple of lunches but if you are a smaller family you can eat half and freeze half and when you are ready to eat it simply put it in your crockpot or microwave it to defrost and then cook!  Enjoy!

Hawkeyes Season

Last Saturday Taylor's basketball team, The Hawkeyes, played a season-ending game in the semi-finals for his league.  They played the undefeated team in the league and they STOMPED all over them.  This was Taylor's first year playing basketball.  It is a 2nd grade league, but they accept 1st graders, so he will play in it again next year as well.   The team started out 0-2 but then came back to win their next 6 games to end the season 6-2.  Taylor is an intense competitor.  Whatever he is doing, he does 110%.  He is obviously not a tall guy (I wish I was a baller)  and doesn't "drive" (yes people I am using an actual basketball term) all that well, so he didn't score a whole lot.  I was actually just proud that he was able to score at all after they moved the baskets up to normal 10ft range.  (can you believe they are making my baby play REAL basketball)  But he was a great defender and played with an intensity that allowed him to be a decent player.  He had fun and loved every minute of practice and games and that is what is important. (sports are all about fun, NOT competition...hahahahaha!)  We ended the season with a pizza party for the kids at the coach's house-the boys are all great friends-many have played baseball together for 2 years also, so it was a GREAT group.  Love you Tay-fun season to watch!

I HEART hearts!

Heart, hearts everywhere!  I know it is a holiday that some roll their eyes at.  A "Hallmark Holidy" which was pretty much created in order for consumers to spend more of their hard earned money on a bunch of crap!  No real meaning or religion behind it.  BUT, I kinda like it.  Hearts are fun.  Red and pink are fun together!  Well, at least now that I have kids, it's cute.  I remember being single on Valentine's Day and being bitter b/c it seemed to be a day that was for couples only.  But my view has changed a bit since having kids.  In school they call it "friendship day" as not to emphasize the LOVE part of it.  But, whatever it is, it is still nice to have a day set aside to remember to tell your loved ones how much they mean to you and thank them with small gestures-you don't have to spend a lot of money if you don't want to-or you can if you do!  We spend Valentine's Day every year doing something together as a family.  We tell the kids it is a day to spend with our loved ones.  They get to pick the activity, so this year we will be watching Despicable Me link on the projector.  I also made them a dinner that I know they will all like (versus a normal balanced meal where I have to bribe them to eat).  Happy Valentine's Day to all! Give an extra little squeeze to the ones you love today!

  Breakfast for dinner

 Making cards

 Making cookies

 Hearts hearts and more hearts

 My friend Courtney found this awesome outfit for $5 at Babies R' Us!  Who knew Babies R Us had cheap clothes?

I couldn't get the boys to wear hearts today.  But Taylor did wear red because it was red day at school and he said you get a smarty if you do it. Yes, one smarty.  And that motivated him.  I think I need a jar of smarties.

Clairey-Belle is a walking, babbling 16-month-old!

My sweet girl is walking!  Finally.  She took longer than the boys to sprout her moving wings.  Taylor walked at 14 months, Connor walked at 12 months and now Claire, at about 15 1/2 months.  What else is new?

• She babbles like she is having a drawn out converastion with you and if you are not paying attention she will put her face directly in front of yours and stare you in the eye, forcing you to pay attention to what she is saying, even though we have no idea what she is saying. 
• She is so wrapped up in her own language, she only has a few words that come out clear enough for us to understand.  They are dadda, dog, book, ball, uh-oh (is that a word?) and sometimes mum-mum-mum (which I THINK is mommy). 
• She loves hugs and to be held. 
• She is definitely a momma's girl, but that's okay because I love every minute of it. 
• But she does love her daddy too and grins big and slobbery when she sees him. 
• She usually is delighted to see her big brothers too but since they sometimes topple her over (or run over her like a mac truck) she isn't always thrilled with them. 
• Her hair is getting long but the back is still at an awkward, mullet-like stage that I am hoping passes quickly. 
• She is getting 3 teeth right now so THAT is fun......
• She got her first hair "do" with a waving/crimping iron lately (all the other girls were doing it, so I couldn't leave her out).  However the end result was a little scary (like, stick your finger in an electrical outlet, scary).
• Her legs are big fat chubby baby legs and I want to gobble them up every time I see them!
• I love having her as my daughter and am so in love with her!

WATCH ME WALK

Ski bunny I am not......

I recently went skiing at Perfect North (link) in Lawrenceburg, IN for the first time since before Taylor was born (so 8+ years ago).  In fact, the last time I went hubby's binding broke on his skii and he dislocated his shoulder and had to drive himself to the hospital because I can't drive a stick.  I'm handy that way. And wow!  I forgot a few things about skiing:

1)  It really hurts your shins to move around in skiis.
2)  I am so short and have such a small boot size that I have to wear kids skiis.
3)  It's a good workout!
4)  I am a scaredy cat going down steep hills.
5)  There are many small children way better than me, including my 7 year old, who totally outskiied me.
6)  Falling is embarassing, but somehow not as embarassing as it was 8 years ago. 
7)  Falling off of a moving ski conveyer and having to have a worker help you up while your husband and child continue to move up the conveyer laughing at you and trying to get the camera out as fast as they can is still just as embarassing!
8)  Unless you own your own equipment, skiing is expensive.
9)  My husband thinks he is super cool on skiis (oh wait, he is super cool on skiis)
10)  I do enjoy skiing and really can do it after I get a hang of it.....which is about 15 minutes before it's time to go home.  Bummer.

The lift ticket also includes unlimited tubing that is connected to the ski area.  So we also were able to tube for a couple of hours.  Or you can buy a separate tubing ticket where you can just tube. You can have them spin you around (if you aren't puking just thinking about the idea of that), you can link together.  Fun times-highly recommend it!