For New Year's Day, we had an Italian Feast and ate each course separately per Marlin's request. We started off with Zuppa Toscana (soup and bread) followed by an Italian salad, lasagna and finally dessert. In this picture, Curt and Joe are having "Wedding Ring Wars". It's kind of like the old paper football game that guys play in Junior High. You can see in this picture that Curt is getting ready to launch his ring on the catapult spoon. While I was up getting the camera, Joe flipped his wedding ring in Julie's soup and soup went spraying everywhere. Marlin says they ruined his BMW t-shirt as you can see, but he was just being dramatic (don't worry it washed out). haha!
For more pics, go to
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2047483&l=1a6cc&id=161502582.
Here is my soup recipe in case anyone wants to try it!
Zuppa Toscana
1 lb. Italian Sausage
1/2 lb. Smoked bacon, chopped
2 (14.5) cans Chicken Broth
1 Quart Water
4 Large Potatoes (I always add extra, sometimes up to 6-8 depending upon the size)
1 Medium Onlion, chopped
2 Large Garlic Cloves
2 Cups washed & chopped Kale or Swiss Chard
1 Cup Whipping Cream
Salt & Pepper to taste
Dice potatoes and place in a soup pot with the water, broth, onions, and garlic.
Add salt & pepper. Cook until tender. While potatoes are cooking, cook sausage,
then the bacon. Place in a bowl with paper towel to absorb the grease until ready
to go into the pot. Once potatoes are tender, add the sausage and bacon and simmer
for 10 minutes. Add the Kale and the Cream to the pot. Let cook another 5-10 minutes
until the Kale is tender but not overcooked. Eat and enjoy!
hello family! this is a bit late, but i wanted to share with you all a smattering of moments from our idaho christmas! above you'll see the ever-faithful Buddy, dad's favorite companion and mom's new "child." in his mouth you'll see one of about 1,000 chew toys/bones/snacks he owns. he also owns my parents and owned me during my 2.5 week stay at the old farm.
apparently, no christmas was complete without playing "rockband" on the x-box. matt brought his set over and we jammed away for several hours. i also played this with friends on new year's eve, as did many of my ohio companions. this was the game of '08!
my cousin cassidy (from the janzen side) stopped by for a pre-christmas visit, and we made the traditional batch of sugar cookies in fun, festive shapes. from this i learned that a 7-year-old is better with icing than i'll ever be.
dad's friend lolo from church was in san francisco and was nice enough to bring us 3 fabulous just-caught crabs. he picked them up, drove through the night and delivered them to our kitchen, where we enjoyed them heartily in the janzen style.
i have been LOVING my new camera, (thanks to lou for help picking it out) so i spent much of my break playing around with it. i had a great time snapping scenes of the farm in it's rare blanketing of snow.
i was also able to take a few drives and catch some mighty beautiful sunsets. the cow shots were for dad...
lynn and mike had us over for a pre-new year's dinner, and during our conversation the similar hats were modeled.
this was a wonderful christmas for the janzen family, and we wish you all a spectacular 2009!
