Broccoli Soup

My sister Randa gave me this recipe.  It is really good.  It reminds me of the base for my tomato soup, which I love!  It has a really nice garlic flavor. 

3T Butter
1 onion, chopped
4 large carrots, chopped
4 c. Chicken broth
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 lb Fresh broccoli florets
2 c. half & half (or Heavy Whipping Cream or milk)
1/4 c. ice water
1/4 c flour
1T soy sauce
1/2 tsp Black Pepper

Melt butter. Add carrots and onion and garlic until onions are white. Bring broccoli almost to a boil in chicken broth. Add butter mixture. Add any seasonings you want. Simmer for about 20 minutes or until broccoli is tender to a fork. Pour soup into blend 1/2 at a time. Blend until smooth. Pour back in pot. Heat on low. Add half & half and soy sauce. Separately mix water and flour. Add to soup to thicken (make sure soup is fairly hot when adding).

I think I would blend a little less to make it chunkier.  I probably didn't do a very good job thickening mine, and therefore it was just thin and nothing to chew on.  I'm not a huge gravy maker so I don't have a lot of practicing thickening.  I would definitely make this again.  I'm sad that soup season is basically over!

In other news, I got a new foot pedal today for free!  I was selling mine to someone from my work who still needs the old one, and she had an extra of the one that I need so we traded!  It was great because now I don't have to wait for it to come in the mail.  Now I just have to wait for the doctors to start dictating on the new system instead of the old one.  In the meantime, I am working on my word expander, which we have to do by individual input again.  It's frustrating because I can't get into my old one to just copy and paste!  Oh well, I'll live.

The girls and I went to a special playground by where we used to live today and then we went to Dairy Queen for ice cream.  We were going to go to Rita's but it wasn't open when we got there.  Thank goodness DQ was right across the street or I might have had a riot on my hands!

Hopefully I will have a picture tomorrow!

At the Playground

Whew, we just got back from a softball game and the girls are in bed.  It's funny how tiring it is to just go, not even play:) 

Today we went to the playground.  We had to hunt for our "treasure" that we found on Friday.  It was a nerf baseball, and I didn't really want to bring it home with us so we buried it by a tree.  Apparently some pirates found it over the weekend, and it is their treasure now.  Pnut wants to find them and make them give it back. 

There was a little girl at the playground about Pnut's age.  She wanted to play, and Pnut did say a few things to her, but she told me was too busy to play with the little girl.  Pnut showed her how she likes to be a pretzel, but other than that they didn't do anything.  Of course, when the little girl left, Pnut wanted to play.  "I'm not too busy any more!"  Hopefully she'll remember this the next time we are there!

I have to go prepare for Lost now.  I have a delicious recipe to share that I got from my sister, but that will have to wait.  My fingers are tired!

Softball Makes Us Busy

Softball is really keeping us busy!  Tonight we went to a game of the other team from our church.  It was great to have Joel be a spectator and help with the girls.  He took that maniac dog along as well.  I won't take him along when Joel plays, I have enough to do with just the girls!  This week we only have one game, next week two, and the week after three!  Whew!

We recently got two children's bicycle seats at yard sales for really cheap.  Joel had to get something from Lowes for one of them, but overall they were super cheap!  We got to try them out yesterday.  The girls loved it!  It is just going to take some time to get used to having the extra weight on the back.  I think it is going to be great exercise!

Joel is watching Unwrapped, and it is making me really hungry...they are doing a segment on Five Guys!  Mmmm.

Tomorrow it is back to normal schedule for us, which will be nice!  I am slowly moving closer to being able to being able to work again...

Sweeties:)

Here's the cuteness I wanted to share yesterday...they played made up games in front of the door for a long time yesterday!  And isn't Pilly super-cute with the little backpack on?!  She even tried to wear it at the table, but she couldn't sit in her chair correctly.  In case you were wondering, my pictures magically started working again...not sure what the problem was last night!

So my foot pedal doesn't work with this program, and they want us to buy a new one.  Perhaps this wouldn't be such a big deal if I hadn't already missed six weeks of work!  But since I am technically self-employed, they won't really do piddly-squat because they don't have to!  Aargh! 

We had some fun friends over today for lunch and a trip to the freezing cold playground!  Poor Pnut had on a dress with no tights and flip-flops.  She was cold!  Pilly was so tired by the time that we came back, she barely made it up the stairs for her nap.

In case you are wondering, I have been particularly unmotivated for sewing recently.  Hopefully that will change soon, but right now I am just enjoying lazing around in the evenings!

I hear some cinnamon toast calling my name now...have a great night!

No Pictures!

It was so good to have a relatively normal day today!  We had Bible study so we got to go out even though the ground was still wet:) 

I have a really cute picture of the girls, but for some reason, my pictures don't want to load.  I am going to have to research this.  Blogger changed something!

I also got my new work program today.  Instead of fixing the old one, they are just putting me on a new program they were going to phase in anyways.  Hopefully they switch over my accounts soon too! 

Joel brought home some canned peaches today so I think I am going to go have peaches and ice cream for a snack.  I'm healthy like that!

I'm Back!

I'm back and glad to be here!  I had a sinus infection all last week as well, which really didn't make for a fun week for Elizabeth, but I was thankful that I didn't have to think about posting with it!  I was trying to dial my mom's phone number and could only remember the first three digits at first...my head felt like it was stuffed with cotton:)

There was a baby shower for a friend from church two weeks ago so I got to try out some new projects! 

This was interesting...the shoes I ended up resewing three or four times.  I sewed the strap to the wrong side on both of them!  I also had to fix a hole that I made by accident one time.  Linen can be really tricky to work with because it is such a loose weave.  Thankfully, Sharon liked them, even if I wasn't that crazy about them!

I loved this kimono, I loved the fabric, I loved the pink!  It was just darling:)  I think kimonos may become something I make more often for gifts.  I don't often make things for gifts more than once except for blankets because I like to try new projects, but this turned out so cute and was so simple that I think it might be a repeat!

Softball started last week (miss you Jackie!), and we are happy to be outside in the evenings again.  Our church has two teams this year so we are split up.  :(  Joel's team is 1-1 so far.  He thinks they will do well in their division.

It has been raining quite a bit, and the girls were absolutely nutty today.  We had a day of practicing discipline because they were just trying to drive me crazy!  Pilly unloaded two bags of clothing that I have in their room to give away.  They took all the toys out of their toy box to use it for a baby bed, and they had books spread all over the floor.  All of this was at the same time.  It looked like a tornado went through!  Wednesday it is supposed to clear up, and we will be outside, regardless of the temperature!

Dear anonymous poster named Randa and sometimes Kacy...I'm glad you missed me:)

Week Off

Sorry about this, I really do have stuff to share, but I have our friend Elizabeth here for the week so we are going to be busy doing school and trying to help her have a good time.  Softball also started up tonight so it is looking like a busy week!  I think that because of all this busyness, I am going to take the week off.