Word for the Year - 2013

I am not a person who really believes in New Year's resolutions.  To me it just adds stress to a time of year when we should be decompressing from all that Holiday drama cheer!  So, we just kind of pick a word to focus on for the year.  This year's word is:

POSITIVITY

In our life, we have quite a few negative people.  Some of them are friends, some are relatives, and some are   just acquaintances.  Obviously, we can't shut these people out, so we are going to focus on helping them to be more positive too.  We can't control the people around us, but we can surely try to change their stinkin thinkin!

I hope that I can bring lots of positivity to your lives this year as well.  Don't worry, I am not talking daily affirmations from Wanna Be Ina!  I believe that something as simple as a good chuckle can foster positive thoughts, so expect my sense of humor to show up even more.

I hope that whatever you are focusing on for 2013 that it brings brightness and cheer to your life, and that you don't let that focus lead to added stress!

Winter Minestrone & Garlic Bruschetta

The christening of that new cookbook I got, started with Ina's Winter Minestrone & Garlic Bruschetta, Barefoot Contessa Foolproof, p. 53.

 First I started by prepping the veggies, and herbs, and pancetta.

Next, I added the pancetta to a Dutch oven with a bit of olive oil.

Once the pancetta was browned, the whole lot of veggies was added.

Once those got softened, a few other ingredients were added.

I only used one can of tomato sauce.

Once those simmered for a while, the rest of the ingredients were added, and the soup was finished.

Don't forget the tasty brushetta for dipping!

And the leftovers were put in to pint size Ball jars, and put in the freezer to enjoy on another cold Winter's night!

I did change Ina's recipe just a slight bit.  I omitted the cannellini beans as beans and I have not really been each other's friend of late.  My husband does not like tomatoes.  He likes the taste, it is just a texture thing, so I used a can of tomato sauce instead of chopped tomatoes.  As I was first making the recipe and I tasted it, I was not sure we were going to like it.  It seemed too tomato-y.  But, after it simmered, it was tasting better.  The kicker was the pesto and parmesan cheese.  Once these were added, my whole family LOVED this soup.  Marcus said it tasted like pizza soup, which is a high compliment from him!  Dan really enjoyed it too, and even took some of the leftovers for lunch the next day, along with plenty of pieces of that yummy garlic bruschetta.

Where to Start?

How about where we left off?  About 10 days before Christmas everyone in our household came down with something.  We were all sick, but with different symptoms.  Maybe we had a touch of the flu.  I really don’t know, because I have NEVER had the flu, but I can tell you that I felt pretty rotten, as did the rest of my crew.  I started five different blog posts during that time, but truly did not have the energy to take pictures and edit the text, so those will go in to the file for next year.  Just in case you are wondering, none of us are fully recovered from whatever we had, but we are all functioning which is what is important.

My hubby’s parents arrived the Saturday before Christmas.  It is all really a blur what we did while they were here.  I remember that we had venison on Christmas Eve.  I truly can’t remember any of the other meals.  While they were here, I was just about at the height of my ailment, and my mind is really fuzzy as to what we did.  There was one morning that they entertained Marcus when he got up, and hubby and I slept in til 9:45.  For that I am very thankful, because between us snoring and sneezing and coughing, there had not been a whole lot of sleeping happening.

Yes, someone is spoiled rotten...it is totally his Grandparents' faults.

We had a great Christmas.  Many new things were added to my kitchen.  There was a potato ricer and and an electric knife (both items that I had been wanting  for years), a cast iron griddle, a set of artisanal salts, a set of European jams and curds, a replacement bowl for my food processor, and the best gift of all…

An autographed copy of Ina’s new cookbook.  My Mother-in-Law is actually the one who got it for me.  I am so excited to start cooking from this cookbook.  I will be tweaking some of the recipes to make them a little healthier, but no worries, I won’t play around with them too much.

My hubby’s parents ended up having to leave on Christmas day to head home, because we were under a blizzard warning, and they did not  want to get stuck here.  My Father-in-Law still works, and he wanted to make sure he could get to work on the 27^th.  It was a good thing they left, because we ended up with a pile of snow estimated to be around 11 inches!  It was nice though, because we didn't have any real accumulations of snow last Winter.

This was long before it finished snowing.  The snow was all the way up to the seat on Marcus's picnic table!

The view from above.  It was nothing but white everywhere you looked.

There is still a lot of snow on the ground, because it just hasn't warmed up enough melt the snow!

Some news to share, I have started a new business venture.  I am not quite ready to share about it just yet, but I will be posting on it within the next week or two.  I am REALLY excited about it, but I want to get all my ducks in a row before I give you all the details!

Now, with Marcus back to school (they went back yesterday) and Dan back at work, I finally let out a little sigh of relief.  Everything seems to be returning to normal, and I am so happy about that.  Not only have I not been blogging, but I haven't been able to read any of my favorite blogs either.  So, I am going to stop typing now, and try to catch up with all my friends out in the blogisphere!

I hope that all of you had a fantastic Holiday Season, and that you are headed in to the New Year with plenty of homemade chicken stock in your freezer!  ;)