Soup and Bread

I had to do another post right away so that the picture of the awful snakes wasn't showing whenever my blog was opened. Halloween night I made this soup for dinner along with the bread shown below. I thought it was delicious and want to share the recipe.

Italian Sausage and Tortellini Soup

1 pkg. sweet Italian sausage (1.25 lb size) I used hot sausage
1 onion chopped
1 clove garlic minced
2 lg cans diced tomatoes
4 cans beef broth
1 1/2 cups red wine
2 lg. carrots chopped
1 pkg. frozen spinach (thaw and drain)
1 tsp. dried basil
1 tsp. dried parsley
1 tsp. oregano
1 pkg dried cheese tortelline (I used the fresh 5-cheese tortellini from Costco)
shredded Parmesan cheese

Remove casings from sausage and discard casings.
Brown sausage, onion and garlic in a large dutch oven, stir until sausage crumbles and is lightly brown. Drain and return to pan.

Add tomatoes, broth and wine, bring to a boil. Add vegetable and herbs. Stir, reduce heat and simmer for 25 minutes

Add the torellini and cook for 15 to 20 minutes if using dried tortellini. If you use the fresh, as I did, you will only need to cook it for 7-8 minutes.

Garnish each serving with parmesan cheese.


I served it with this delicious oatmeal molasses batter bread. Easy to make and really good with soup.



Oatmeal Molasses Batter Bread

2 pkg. yeast
2 tsp. salt
5 cups flour
1 cup quick cooking oats, uncooked
1/2 cup molasses
1 tablespoon margarine or butter

Combine yeast, salt and 2 cups of the flour in a large bowl. Set aside. In a 2-qt pan mix the oats, molasses, 1 T. butter add 2 1/4 cups water. Heat over low heat until very warm (120-130 degrees) . With electric mixer on low speed, gradually beat liquid into flour mixture, just till blended. Increase mixer speed to medium and mix for 2 minutes. Beat in 1/2 cup flour and beat on med for another 2 minutes. With a large wooden spoon, stir in remaining 2 1/2 cups flour to make a stiff batter that leaves the sides of the bowl. Cover bowl loosely with plastic wrap and let rise in warm place until double in size, about 1 hour. Grease two 2-qt. round casserole dishes. Divide dough into equal portions and turn into casseroles. With greased hands, turn dough to grease top and shape each into a ball. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise about 45 minutes, until double in size.

Place in a pre-heated 350 degree oven and bake for 40 minutes or until loaves sound hollow when tapped. Remove from casseroles and serve warm.

(There is only 1 gram of fat in each serving and no cholesterol)

I Hate Snakes

These slithering, wretched vipers have been tormenting me for the past week. Whenever we had a some what warm day they would bask in the sun right in front of my front door. I don't just dislike snakes, I hate them, they make my skin crawl and I think they should all be caught and killed.

Colette is here for the weekend and when she was bringing her bags into the house the big one was right in front of the door and scared the heck out of her.

Ken doesn't think there is anything wrong with snakes and tried to defend them by saying they eat the bugs. Who cares! I would rather have bugs than snakes any day. I finally convinced him that it's not cool to have snakes slithering around our front door so he enlisted Trey's help and caught THREE snakes. I couldn't convince him that they should die, but he did take them down the hill and released them. I was feeling a little better about the whole thing, but then he told me they didn't get all of them, a baby snake escaped and crawled between our step and planter. That snake must be caught.... baby snakes grow into big snakes.

Halloween (Bah Humbug)

Halloween has never been a favorite holiday of mine, in fact I really don't care for it at all. However, I always tried to make it fun for my kids and now my grandkids. Caelen and Lexie were here today so we decided to make Halloween treats. Thank goodness Colette was here to help with our creations.These are the pretzel logs we made, it was a little complicated for the kids (and grandma) so I really should say.....these are the pretzel logs Colette made.

Later in the day we decided to tackle the gingerbread haunted house. Lexie and Caelen got a little more into this project.

Presenting the finished project. Colette did a good job on this too, even after I tried to help her and accidentally smeared the windows she had so painstakingly created. I was definitely a hindrance in the kitchen today.

After all this, I'm sure the kids don't suspect that I really don't like Halloween. I do a good job of hiding my dislike.

What's on my mind

I shamelessly stole this idea for a post from a blog I read often (thank you, Colett). She is the daughter of one of my oldest friends, she doesn't know me, but I feel like I know her.


Making: Lists of things to do before we sell our house

Cooking: The Atkins way (Ugh!)

Drinking: Shasta Diet grapefruit soda

Reading: Julie and Julia

Wanting: The next 9 months to go by quickly, then time can slow down

Looking: At houses in Billings

Playing: On the computer, way too much

Wasting: Time on the computer

Sewing: Are you kidding??????

Wishing: I was on vacation

Enjoying: The warm days and cool nights

Waiting: To retire

Liking: This time of my life

Wondering: If I can stay on this diet long enough to lose 20 pounds

Loving: My grandkids and the funny things they say and do

Hoping: New TV shows start soon

Marvelling: The Pioneer Woman (how does she do it all?)

Needing: To eat something sweet

Smelling: New candle melt that I really like, but can't remember the name

Wearing: Flip-flops, I need to live somewhere that I can wear them everyday.

Following: Blogs of people I don't know

Noticing: That I really care about fellow bloggers when things aren't going well in their lives

Thinking: About our January cruise

Bookmarking: Century 21 Real Estate

Opening: My mouth at the wrong time

Giggling: At inappropriate times; will I ever outgrow that?

Feeling: Hungry

How would I know?

Ken and I stopped at a small convenience store in Dayton, Wyoming on our way to a camping trip in the Big Horns. Ken found a pair of glasses in the bathroom (they only have one) and turned them into the clerk. She mentioned that they probably were left by someone in the large group that had just left the store. The group was traveling together in Dodge Vipers and we had admired all their cars before entering the store.

We left and headed up the mountain, about 15 miles up we were stopped by a road construction crew. The group in the Vipers was just ahead of us so Ken walked up to one of the cars and told the driver about the lost glasses. The driver was appreciative and said he would pass it on to the others in their group. We proceeded to our campsite and spent the Labor Day weekend there. (Another post)

We didn't think anymore about the glasses until Tuesday on our way home when we stopped at the store for coffee. The same clerk was working so Ken asked her if anybody ever came back to claim the prescription glasses. She said "no, but they just look like cheap reading glasses so I'll probably just throw them away." She held up the cheap glasses and I started laughing.....yep, they were mine. Ken couldn't figure out how I could lose my glasses and not even realize they were missing. The picture below shows why. I buy them at the dollar store and stash them everywhere so how would I know if one was missing.

Why can't we retire here?

I have asked Ken that question everytime we visit Loveland, Colorado. He always answers that it's too expensive, but he says that about everywhere I suggest. He would be so happy to just stay in Colstrip, but that's just not going to happen. We go to Loveland every August for the sculpture show and it is one of my favorite places to visit. There are flower gardens like shown above all through the town and sculptures on street corners, in the parks, in front of businesses; it's such an artist's town that you would think he would love to live there, but no he wants to stay in Colstrip for the free golf!

This is not a very good picture of Ken's booth. He didn't have a fantastic show but he sold enough carvings to make it worth our while and get a free "mini" vacation.

This was one of my favorite sculptures at the show. The detail doesn't show up real well in the pic, but it was very well done.

This is one of the sculptures I found on my walk through the park. I should have taken the picture from a different angle to show the expressions on their faces.

Another park, another sculpture.

This huge, green horse's head could be yours for a mere $147,000. The prices at this show always astound me. Although this was well done, there was something about the green teeth and tongue that kind of repelled me.

Back by Popular Demand

Yes, I have decided to resume this blog. Thanks to the overwhelming response I had asking me not to quit (thank you to Joan and Laurel) I decided to give it another try. So as soon as I come up with something interesting I will be back.