Braised Italian Sausage Stew

Homemade Braised Italian Sausage Stew

One of our staples during all these rainy, cold spring days is a homemade braised italian sausage stew. My husband and I love this soup and I usually make enough to bring some over for my parents to enjoy as well. This was the first recipe I ever made using some white wine - very exciting! 

Ingredients:

• 1 package sausage
• 2 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 1 onion, coarsely chopped
• 2 carrots, cut into slices
• 3 cups Swiss chard, stems removed, roughly chopped
• 1/2 cup barley, uncooked
• 1 can (28oz) plum tomatoes, in sauce (I used crushed tomatoes)
• 14.5oz stock (chicken or vegetable works well!)
• 1 cup dry white wine
• 1 tsp Italian seasoning
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
• 1/2 tsp salt

Directions:

1. Heat the Olive Oil over low/medium heat in a dutch oven. 
2. Add onion, cook 3 minutes, until slightly soft. 
3. Add sausage to pan, cook 12 to 14 minutes or until sausage is browned and almost cooked through.
4. Stir in carrots and swiss chard. Add the barley, tomatoes, stock, wine, italian seasoning, salt and pepper. Stir to combine all the ingredients.
5. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat and continue to simmer for up to 1 hour or until the barley is cooked.
6. Serve with crusty Italian bread.
7. Enjoy!

B is for Books - Book Nook!

My husband and I finally got around to finishing putting together our oldests new bed (the KURA from Ikea) and he requested the higher bed, so we decided to create a little book nook for him to hang out with us for reading or working on activities. We got it set up and he absolutely loves the bed and the book nook!

We have a little table for the lamp and doodle pad and underneath it a crate full of his favorite books, one of which he is reading The Wacky Substitute.

Where do your kids enjoy reading? 



Homemade Whole Wheat Bread Crumbs

 

 

In an effort to tie in our weekly Alphabet Series, my oldest, Landon and I are including cooking and using foods that correlate with the weeks letter. Since we are on the letter B  and I needed Bread crumbs for some Ranch Chicken Thighs I was making for dinner. These are super easy and delicious - you will never need to buy bread crumbs again!

 

 

This is the bread we buy from Costco, about $5.50 for two loaves! I used a half a loaf for the recipe. You can use stale bread or fresh, like I did and just toasted it and let it sit for a while so it could really dry out.

 

 

In addition to bread, you will need salt, pepper and about a half stick of butter. Sometimes I like to add some ranch or italian seasoning as well.

 

While the bread is toasting, melt the butter in a large sauce pan on low heat.

 



 Put your bread in a food processor. I threw mine in the Vitamix, worked great! Don't blend to much, you want to leave some texture. Pour your ground up bread into the butter, add seasoning and cook on medium heat until everything is coated and the pieces get nice and toasty. Let it cool thouroughly and pour into a container or heavy duty Ziploc bag. Store at room temp for up to 6 months!

 

Easy peasy & delicious!

 

 



A is for Alphabet - Suppliment

While Catti paves the way in our 26 Week Toddler Alphabet Series, I'm working with my 5 year old on an older version of the series and even attempt to involve my 14 month old as well.

A for Alphabet seems like the perfect starting point and while Landon is familiar with all the letters of the alphabet, we are now working on beginning to read which means: read, read and read some more! We headed to the library to begin the week and grabbed two alphabet books, but also included our own Arthur book and a bilingual Animal board book for Luke.

I've recently become intrigued with the Montessori style of teaching and found that when teaching letters, they emphasize the sound of a letter, versus the name of a letter. Since Landon knows the names of the letters, this series is the perfect starting point to work on the sounds of the alphabet and the early early stages of reading!



Other activities focus on Landon working on writing the letters (uppercase and lowercase). He has a couple work books with letter activities, but we work on the Fisher Price Doodle, drawing the letters in his sensory colored rice bin (which Luke dumped onto the carpet last night, need to make a new batch of rice!), play doh, even using his trains and train tracks!

Now that Landon is 5, his responsibilities have increased around the house, one of which includes deciding on one dinner a week to help prepare and cook. Landon and I picked up some Apples and Avocado for the week to incorporate in our meals and plan on tying in foods that begin with the coordinating letter each week.

 

We can't wait for the weeks ahead and hope you join us!

Project 365 - January 14

Catti's picture "Essence of a Household with a Toddler" inspired my own!

 

 

The fastest, easiest gift!

Don't laugh! This is the easiest, fastest teacher/hostess/neighbor/mechanic/mailman gift ever! I always keep all items on hand during the holidays for a quick gift. This really doesn't need a tutorial, but I'll do one just in case your brain has gone numb from all the holiday stress & craziness!

 

 

Here's what you need: A pack of cookies (anything festive will work, but I personally LOVE peppermint), a holiday tin, ribbon & some decorative waxed paper (even plain waxed paper would work, but this is an optional addition).

 

 

 

Stuff in the waxed paper so it's flat on the bottom & fluted up the sides.

 

 

 

Open the cookies. Make sure a quality control test is issued...

 

Fill it up, put the lid on & tie up with some ribbon! Then decoratively sprinkle your facorite soft peppermint candies around for the picture. Yum!

 

I told you this was easy!

 

 

Dark Chocolate Torte

Every Sunday I make either a dessert or an entree for Football Sunday (it's a weekly holiday in our household) and my mom makes the other one. I wanted to make a dessert this weekend but with no flour and 3 cartons of eggs in the refrigerator, I knew there was only one dessert that I could really make. Drum-roll please...... A dark chocolate torte. Believe me, I'm so grateful for the circumstance, 'cause this torte is easy (only 5 ingredients, which I always have on hand) and delicious!

Ingredients needed:

• 16 oz dark chocolate (you can use semi-sweet as well! I always recommend a higher quality chocolate, especially for this recipe, but all I had were Nestle Dark Chocolate Chips)
• 1/2 cup butter
• 5 large eggs
• 1 Tbsp vanilla
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees and grease a spring-form pan generously! Melt the butter and chocolate in a saucepan over low heat.

Before

The delicious after!

Separate the eggs.

In a large bowl, whisk the egg yolks and vanilla together.

Slowly beat the warm chocolate mixture into the yolk mixture until well blended.

With the mixer on high speed, blend the egg whites until soft peaks form.

Gradually beat in the 1/4 cup of powdered sugar until it dissolves and whites stand in stiff peaks.

Fold the stiffen egg whites into the chocolate mixture, one third at a time.

Spoon the batter into the pan and spread evenly.

Bake for 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (about 1 hour 10 minutes for me). Let the torte cool in the pan. When cool, remove the sides and cut into slices.

Sprinkle half of the wedges with cocoa powder and the others with powdered sugar. Arrange the slices alternately on cake plate.

I serve this with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, but it's insanely delicious just on its own! You'll want to eat more, but it's so rich you won't be able too!