Zuppa Toscana Soup

You know that wonderful potato and sausage soup they serve at Olive Garden? Oh, it's so creamy and decedant, with a nice bit of spice to keep you coming back for more. Well, I could tell you where I got this recipe folks but then I'd probably be tracked down by the big wigs at Olive Garden corporate. But lets just say, it's out there, it's available, if my Grandma who doesn't own a computer tells me about it then it's pretty clear that EVERYONE has heard of it. Not that she DID tell me about it... wouldn't wanna get granny into any trouble!

So lets get down to business, shall we?

First you put 1 qt. of water and 2 14.5 oz. cans of chicken broth into a pot.

I forgot to do action shots of me pouring the chicken broth, but if you REALLY need picture instructions for that then please... STEP AWAY FROM THE STOVE! lol

Sorry, I'm getting a little punchy... it's late... bare with me. :P



Then you scrub 2 large potatoes and cut them up into chunks. I forgot to take a pic of me cutting potatoes. I was just getting SO excited about eating Zuppa Toscana Soup that I couldn't WAIT to get those potatoes into the pot! Here's what they look like, I left the skins on because that's how Olive Garden does it. I suppose it makes the soup seem more rustic or something.


Maybe that's how the Italians do it.

Then I chopped 1 onion. And then I was a mess of tears and snot for a few minutes, it was a STRONG onion! In the midst of my sniffles Hubby asked, "Oh, do you want me to chop an onion for you?" "Kinda late for that honey!" I then tossed the onion into the pot along with 1 tsp. of garlic. If you're a really good chef you'll use 2 fresh cloves instead. I'm sure it would taste better that way.



Then I went to work on the sausages. I bought a pack of raw Italian Turkey Sausage, it was in large links. I really wish they had it in bulk, but I was trying to be healthy... sort of. :) The recipe I received called for just normal Italian pork sausage, but I really didn't notice any difference in flavor when it was finished. Oh, and I'm getting good and removing sausage from casings. Especially after I made 2 batches of this for Christmas.


While I was removing casings and browning sausage I started to boil the soup. And oh man was it starting to smell good!


And mmmmmm MMM! Was that sausage lookin' and smellin' good too!


Once it was thoroughly cooked I added the sausage to the soup with a slotted spoon. I wiped the grease out of my skillet and started on the next level of flavor...


BACON!!! Oh Baby... ooooooh baby! I used about a 1/2 pound altogether. Just what I had left over in the fridge from Christmas... yup, I'm still working on those left over ingredients.

There's a whole bunch of odd people on the internet who are totally in LOVE with bacon. If you don't believe me check this out... but don't say I didn't warn you.



So since it was going into soup, and not my Hubby's mouth, I decided to cook it extra crispy. When it was done I let it cool then crumbled it into the soup.


Then I brought out the Kale. Kale is a highly underrated veggie if you ask me. Just look at it! It's absolutely resplendent.



For those who don't know what to do to prepare kale, you wash it off, and then take it like this:



You see that think stalk in the middle? You want to cut that out. It's tough and not to be eaten.



Then once that's outta there you just give it a rough chop. Then set it to the side for a minute.



And get out your heavy cream! Yup, this is how much I have in my house right now. I'm nearly ready to start using it in my morning coffee. Please save me! If you have any ideas of what I can do with it besides pouring it down the sink (or slathering it all over my bod) please let me know!!! Does whipping cream freeze? I'm guessing no.



Sigh. In any case, pour yourself a cup of it and dump it into the soup.



And then you can throw that kale in there too. Mix it on in.



It's a pretty tough veggie despite it's flowery appearance. So don't be afraid that you'll hurt it or something.



There now! Isn't it GORGEOUS! Even Hubby decided he could give some a try after seeing how pretty and harmless it was. But secretly... it was the bacon that attracted him. :) He can't fool me.



Aaaaaahhh... now there's a comforting soup good enough for company! It's somewhat healthy too, with all that kale and turkey sausage. And you didn't have to wait for a table or pay $5 a bowl either! For a low-carb alternative you could use califlower instead of potatoes and you probably wouldn't even notice the difference.



Zuppa Toscana Soup (like Olive Garden's, except better because YOU made it!)

Serves 12 (I plan to eat it for lunch for the next few days)

1 lbs. spicy Italian sausage
1/2 lbs. smoked bacon chopped
1 qt. water
2 14.5 oz. cans chicken broth
2 large russet potatoes (or cauliflower for low-carb option)
2 garlic cloves (or 1 tsp. of the stuff in the jar)
1 medium onion - chopped
2 cups chopped kale OR swiss chard
1 cup heavy whipping cream
salt & pepper to taste (I didn't use any, but feel free)

-In a skillet over medium-high heat, brown sausage, breaking into small pieces as you fry it; drain, set aside.
-In a skellet over medium-high heat, brown bacon; drain, set aside.
-Place water, broth potatoes, garlic, and onion in a pot; simmer over medium heat until potatoes are tender. (Or until you're done with the above mentioned steps.. sorry, I hate following directions.)
-Add sausage and bacon to pot; simmer for 10 minutes.
-Add kale and cream to pot; season with salt & pepper; heat through.

First Kisses!

I was going to write about something completely different, but then this morning when I was playing with the girls something wonderful happened.

With a face like this:


You would think Anya would be the first to pucker up!

But instead it was Ziva!

I was playing with Anya, a kissing game where I would purse my lips and make very dramatic "MMmmmmmm Muah!" kissing noises. Each time I'd do it Anya would lean in for a kiss on her head or cheek or chin or whatever. And she'd giggle and wiggle each time with wonderful toddler enthusiasm.

And then Ziva decided to climb up on the couch with us to join the game. I've played this game with Ziva before in pretty much the above described method. Except this time something was different. There was a curious gleam in Ziva's eyes. And she pursed her own lips, leaned forward and said, "mmmmmm" as she kissed me right on the lips! And OH did my heart do flip flops, in a strangely similar fashion to when their father first kissed me!

I gotta say, this parenting business really is amazing!

Snow Days 2008

I'm sure most of the country is already aware of the big snow storm of 2008, so I won't go into the specifics. I'll just say that it snowed some, and the girls got to go outside and experience it for the first time. And then it snowed a LOT and I kept them inside thinking it would probably freak them out to stand in snow that's up to their tiny little waists. I realize this is old old old news to most of you, but I'm sorry about that. I'm just super slow at getting this info out there and I'm hoping to be caught up by the end of the month... but no promises! I might still be talking about Christmas in February! lol

Oh, and just to answer your question, yes, this is when it snowed the weekend before Christmas, I think these pics were taken on Thursday, but I won't swear by it.

Here's Anya! She really thought the snow was fun and exciting, but she did NOT want to walk in it unless I was holding her hand.


Don't worry, they got mittens for Christmas. :)

Here's Ziva! She was just a non-stop little machine! She wanted to walk all over the place and wouldn't hold still for even a second. Oh, and I had a downright impossible time getting her to even LOOK at the camera. Which normally... is not a problem for her.




So I would chase Ziva around for a while, and then I would come back to Anya. And Anya would be in the EXACT same spot I left her in. She would just be babbling and laughing and having a great time in her same little spot!


I had to pick up Anya and move her over near Ziva so I could get some pictures of the two of them together. Seriously... it's like herding cats sometimes!



And then Ziva finally decided to look at the camera. I kind of remember doing something silly to get her attention.



And then here's my snow angel I made several days later after the sky opened up and dumped mounds of the white stuff into our world.

Christmas Leftovers: aka Ham Bone Soup

Yes, I'm still dealing with left overs. We had 2 Christmas's this year... more on that in a future post. :)

So since I had a ham bone hanging around the house I decided to use it to make soup. If you have one in your freezer, feel free to wing it and toss in whatever left overs you happen to have in your fridge. You'll be glad you did!

Here's the cast of characters:


I realized afterwords that I should have taken a picture of the beans BEFORE I soaked them overnight. So let me explain what's in that pot. It's just a generic bag of 15 bean soup. You can get it in the dried beans section of your grocery store. It comes with a little packet inside of "flavorings", but if you're smart you'll stay FAR FAR away from that little packet! Yucko! Have you ever read the ingredients for that thing?? Nasty stuff! If you're smart you'll use your own flavorings and it'll turn out so much better. Trust me.

Here's a couple more pictures of the beans, just in case you don't know what 15 bean soup mix looks like.


This is after they had been soaking for about 12 hours. Then I drained and rinsed them. Some people just start cooking them without soaking them first, but it adds about 5 hours to your cooking time. If you have an extra 5 hours (HA!) then you can skip this step, otherwise soak & rinse.


Then I started chop chop choppin' some veggies!


I had leftover celery that was going to go bad if I didn't use it quick, so I put everything I had left in the soup. Don't go rushing out to buy celery for this if you don't have any hanging around, just use what you've got and it'll turn out great.


Then an onion. You really do need an onion for this, it makes all the difference.


Then you toss the beans and veggies into a 6-quart or larger crock pot.


Then I brought out my ham bone. It ain't pretty, but it'll make some awesome soup!


I didn't cut it up or anything, but you can if you want to. I just nestled it in with it's new friends... Beans & Veggies.


Then I decided to get fancy and do an action shot. I'm pretty excited about the results! I know... I need to get a life. lol


I didn't measure how much chicken broth I put in, I just used what I had left in the fridge and then filled the rest with water. I ended up adding about 5 cups of water. You should just add enough liquid to give the mix some breathing room. Hubby doesn't like thick soup, so I added more than what is absolutely necessary.


Now for the exciting part! Seasonings! To start out I took the leaves off a bunch of thyme. No need to chop, the leaves are tiny and will cook in perfectly.


Then I tossed the thyme in the pot along with about a teaspoon of pepper and 5 crushed chicken bullion cubes. I just used 1 cube for every cup of water I added. I could have used salt... if we had any salt in the house!


Then I set the crock on high, cooked it at that setting until it started to simmer, and then I turned it down to low. Overall it cooked for about 5-6 hours, most of that time it was on the low setting.

Don't you just love how exact I am?

Hey, it isn't rocket science!

It's supposed to be fun people! :)

So after all that work (or not, since it's so easy!), you end up with a very tasty bowl of bean soup.

If you're like me you'll eat it with a nice fresh salad.


Or if your like my Hubby you'll eat it by itself... and then eat a bunch of Doritos later.

Our Birth Story

I've decided that perhaps I should start at the beginning. Hubby and I had tried for a year on our own to become parents before finally breaking down and using Clomid. For most people Clomid only results in one baby. But since I also have a very long family history of twins it increased our chances exponencially. After only one cycle of the drug I got those two little lines on my home pregnancy test that I had been praying for for a very long time.

So when the ultrasound tech said that we had 2 babies in my belly we were surprised, but we weren't completely shocked. We knew it was possible, even without the drugs it was possible.

The day before the girls were born I had a perinaitologist appointment. Several weeks prior my parents had decided that I could not go to any more appointments alone, and insisted that if DJ couldn't go with me then one of them would. This was quite a commitment for them because I was going to 2 NST appointments and 1 ultrasound appointment each week. By the end of my pregnancy I was threatening my Dr. to bring my sleeping bag and camp out in the waiting room. lol All of this to say, DJ was going to have to work June 11th, 2007, so my mom made room in her schedule and planned to go with me to the appointment. At the last minute DJ decided to take the day off work and go along as well, and since my mom had already planned to come I had TWO chaperones that day rather than just one. They both kept telling me that they felt they NEEDED to be there with me. I thought they were both silly, but when you're 34 weeks prego with twins your will to argue lessens tremendously. I pretty much threw my hands in the air and said something along the lines of, "Fine whatever, but nothing's going to happen! He'll just say everything's fine and then you will both feel silly for taking the day off work for nothing!" But somehow they just knew, even though I didn't.

Maybe it was because I looked like this:


In any case, the ultrasound tech that day took a lot of measurements. They were especially concerned about Ziva because she was so much smaller than her sister. But we also knew that they were fraternal, and there could be a natural disparity between them just like any other set of sisters born on different years. So I really wasn't worried at all, I felt like the doctors were making a big fuss over nothing. But I was thankful to be getting such great care, and I was happy to go along for the ride. There was one ultrasound several weeks earlier when they mis-measured Ziva, so the tech really took her time to make sure everything was correct. And then she got quiet, and left to get the doctor. I could see her heartbeat and everything so I knew she wasn't in distress, but her actions still made me nervous. DJ said, "Well, I bet it's time." My mom agreed. I said, "Psh.. you guys are crazy!"

The doctor came in and said, "Time to deliver!" And I said, "What?!" I was in total denial... which ain't just a river in Egypt! I thought for SURE that I'd carry them to at least 36 weeks! I had been visualizing it, picturing me taking home 2 healthy 6 lbs. babies as soon as I was released from the hospital. This was NOT my plan! Apparently Ziva had dropped off her growth curve, which meant that she would grow better outside rather than inside. He offered the option of checking myself into the hospital right then, or waiting until the next morning. I picked the next morning. I wanted to go home, do laundry, eat a normal dinner, pack my bag, etc.

So that's what we did.

The next morning we arrived at the hospital. They wanted to hook me up to the NST to monitor the girls, I helped them. By then I was getting to be a pro at knowing where the girls heart beats could be found. The nurse checking me in talked me through what would happen. Turns out she was an identical twin, so she had a special place in her heart for twin births. And then she got to the part of her speech where she explained that after the girls were born they would show me each girl, and then they would go to a little room next to the OR, and then they'd sew me up, and I'd get to spend a brief amount of time with each girl before they were taken to the NICU and I was taken to recovery. And that's when I broke down and cried. No, I sobbed. Because these precious little girls that I had spent every moment with for the past 8 months would now be taken from me in such a sudden way, and I wouldn't be able to share a room with them the way I had envisioned. It was terrible, just writing it now brings me to tears.



And bless his heart, DJ just cried right along with me. They had to delay my surgery by 15 minutes just so we could pull ourselves together.

The surgery itself went without a hitch. I had the two best Dr's I could have asked for performing the surgery: Dr. Hutchinson and Dr. Gibbons. They were amazing! Ziva, who was breech, was born first, and then Anya was born 2 minutes later.

Here is what I wrote in a mass email once I got home that gives most of the basic details:

Well our girls arrived on June 12th and they’re both doing great! Ziva Lynn was 3 lbs. 9 oz. and Anya Jean was 5 lbs. 11 oz. Right now they’re both in the NICU and it will probably be a week or two before they get to come home. The c-section went without a hitch, the worst part of the whole experience was getting my IV placed which took 3 tries (ouch!). Both babies came out crying. Ziva came out with both arms outstretched like she was saying “Here I am!” Anya needed some help with suction at first to get all the fluid out of her lungs, but once that was done they were both doing fine just breathing room air. At this point Ziva has gained 3 oz. over her birth weight and Anya still has a couple oz. to go before she reaches her birth weight. They’re both doing great regulating their own body temperature, so today they took them out of the incubators and put them together in a crib. So we got some great pictures of them in the crib together all cuddled up. They seem to really enjoy it! The only thing that’s keeping them in the NICU at this point is that they need to learn how to eat. They both have feeding tubes and we’re working on breastfeeding, but I’ve been told that babies that are born 6 weeks early usually aren’t ready to eat on their own until it’s closer to their due date. The feeding sessions are going well and they’re both catching on but don’t stay awake long enough to eat as much as they need to.

What I didn't say in that email is that after they were born Dr. Hutchinson showed their placentas to DJ. Apparently Ziva's placenta was 1/2 the size of Anya's, which explains why Ziva was so tiny by comparison. Plus Ziva's umbilical cord had grown along the side of her sack, which means if my water had broken unimaginable things could have happened to her. So THANK GOD I had good doctors watching out for me!!! And THANK GOD they decided I needed a c-section! Because it could have easily gone bad and Ziva might not be here with us today.



They stayed in the NICU for 2 weeks.



They were very cute.





It's amazing to think about how tiny they were.



I feel completely honored that God entrusted them to me.

Twin Expectations

Recently on a message board that I frequent, the topic came up: how did your expectations of parenting change when you discovered that you were having twins?

I always knew that I would breastfeed. I was breastfed, my brother was too, and I just grew up thinking that exclusive breastmilk was the way to go for feeding babies. According to my mom my brother never would even take a bottle, it was the boob or nothing for him! I pretty much thought I wouldn't even need to have bottles in my house. But when I found out I had two babies in my belly I wondered if it was even possible to breastfeed. I was pretty upset about it. I had envisioned sitting in a rocking chair with my sweet little baby, just rocking in the sunlight in a pretty cotton gown, with a halo over my head of course. And choir singing softly in the background. You know, like Mary & Jesus. lol How do you even go about it with twins? I jumped online for answers, like I always do, and found that LOTS of women breastfeed their twins! I even found a book dedicated to the subject! Now, it wasn't exactly what I envisioned, there were much more pillows and babies and boobies involved, and there was no rocking chair or halo. And we did use bottles, lots of bottles. And I had to sit with a pump hooked up to me like a cow hooked up to a milking machine. But I DID breastfeed. And my girls DID get all the vital nutrients of my milk. And we DID form that wonderful Mother/Child bond during feedings. In fact, my girls also bonded with each other during this precious time. Many a meal they would reach out and hold hands while nursing. And those memories will be with me forever.

There were a lot of other expectations that pretty much went out the window when we found out we were having twins. We had to buy a new car, we had to buy twice as many baby items, we have 2 weddings and 2 college tuitions to plan for.

There are normally 2 reactions people give us when they find out our girls are twins. The first is, "Oh you're so lucky! I wish I could have had twins!" And the other is, "Oh my gosh how horrible! I'm glad it's you and not me!!!" And the odd thing about being a twin parent is that I go through both of those emotions, sometimes in the same hour. And honestly, I kind of resent both of those reactions, especially when declared by strangers in the grocery store. Because neither is really correct. Yes, we're lucky, but there's also a great deal of hardship that comes with such luck. And yes, I'm glad it's me and not you. But there are often times when I wish it were the other way around too.

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Coming Soon!!!

Anya & Ziva's Birth Story - I realized yesterday while copying everything over to this site that somehow it's gotten lost in the shuffle. :( But it's alright, I'll re-write it and hopefully add some new perspective... oh.. and pictures!

Christmas Leftover's Soup aka: Ham Bone Soup

My New Year's Resolution

This blog is my resolution to better chronicale my life with the girls. Up till now I've been using the blog feature on MySpace, but once you put a certain number of entries the older ones disappear. So I've had to type in Word, save, and then post. Seems like a lot of extra steps that I don't want to make! I'm hoping this will solve that problem.

As a result, I haven't been writing as much as I'd like as often as I'd like. And it makes me feel bad because there's a lot that's not being committed to 'paper' and eventually the memories get lost. I'm hoping to go back in time a bit and re-write some things that have happened. Possibly gain some new perspective, and give myself some needed motivation to take pictures. :) Maybe that's asking a lot, but that's what I'm shooting for!