Our Favorite Soup

We had a wonderful wet, stormy weekend- the kind that I live for and dream about all year long! I know many people get inspiration from warm, sunny days, but I am a girl who draws upon the power of Cozy. A rainy grey day that calls for wool socks, hot cocoa and lazy afternoon lounging is pure magic in my world. On days like these, I know no other way to warm and fill our tummies than to make a large pot of soup to feast on all week. Partner it up with some homemade bread, and I feel like I've given my family the biggest hug they could ever wish for.

A very close family friend of ours passed away about 8 years ago after battling cancer. Her name was Kathy, and if you don't know her directly- trust me, you know someone who probably does. She was the most loving, generous, outspoken, hilarious, good-hearted woman I knew, and she was an inspiration to me in more ways than I can even count. And good heavens, the woman could cook. She loved to feed people, and people loved to be fed by her. Hers was the house that everyone wanted to come to for parties and social gatherings. She was an Italian genius in the kitchen- she left behind an incredible legacy, and lucky for us, one of the best recipes for soup I've ever had. 

While I was enjoying the rain yesterday afternoon, I had a surprising wave of grief come over me, as grief often does, suddenly deeply missing Kathy. Couple this with not a clue for what to make for dinner, and suddenly the inspiration came together. I would make her soup and make some bread and cook my way through my temporary moment of grief. As we were eating dinner last night, not only did my family fall in love with the soup (Ben had 4 bowls), but I was able to explain where I got the recipe, and tell my children a little bit about who Kathy was. I can't help but think she was smiling down on us- heavenly tears of joy filling her eyes, seeing my little family around the table, eating her soup and cherishing her memory. There are no words to express the imprint she's left on our hearts.

Thank you, Kathy, for this soup. And for everything.

Photo courtesy of Nicco Zuffanelli

Kathy Z's Sausage & Vegetable Soup

*NOTE: Being the crazy Italian woman that she was, Kathy cooked "loosely"; meaning, every single ingredient listed is an approximation. You can add or take away any ingredient to tailor it to your specific taste. That's the beauty of this recipe. My personal notes are included in parenthesis.

Ingredients:

-1 zucchini, sliced

-1/2 lb. green beans, halved lengthwise (I used about 3/4 lb because we love green beans)

-1/2 lg. onion, chopped

-1 can crushed tomatoes (I thought this meant a smaller, 14 oz. sized can, but when I went to the store, the only can of crushed tomatoes that were available were the larger 28 oz. size. It's definitely a stronger tomato base & flavor, but it was to die for.)

-6 c. chicken stock (I ended up adding at least a cup of water to thin out the crushed tomatoes a bit. Again, this is all to taste! Typically I use the low-sodium stock so I can control how much salt we're having; however the store was sold out of low-sodium so I used the regular stock. According to my husband, this  actually MADE the soup....go figure....)

-Big handful of mini cheese ravioli (Trader Joe's carries these, but I didn't have time to go out that way. Instead, we used a small soup pasta, called "Stelline ". They are these cute little star shapes and they were excellent in this soup! I used 1/2 box, or 1/2 lb.)

-5 cloves garlic, minced

-1 lb. Italian sausage- sweet or spicy

-*I also added 2 carrots and 2 celery sticks for additional flavor, both chopped

-Salt & pepper to taste

In dutch oven or large soup pot, saute sausage until beginning to brown over medium high heat. Add onion, garlic (and in my soup, this is also when I added the carrots & celery), until vegetables soften. Add all other ingredients EXCEPT for the pasta. Bring to a boil, and turn down to a simmer to cook the rest of the vegetables until al dente (approximately 10-15 minutes). While the soup is simmering, boil pasta (ravioli or other) according to package directions. Add the cooked pasta to the soup just before serving. Season to taste. Serve soup with hearty serving of parmesan sprinkled on top. It also tastes wonderful with a shot of olive oil on top. Enjoy!

Rainy Nights

Image via WikipediaOn a chilly rainy day, some people like to warm themselves in an ambiance of coziness by building a fire. But my husband (read: fire builder) is away, and I'm here to tell you: in a pinch- a large glass of hot sake does the trick exquisitely. Cheers!

Ode to the Night Owl

A few weeks ago, Dan woke up to the sound of our dog Truman, barking from his dog cave (which by day doubles as our laundry room) at the god-awful hour of 1:30 a.m. Since we live somewhat in the stick-ville countryside, we tend to get all sorts of wild creatures in our neighborhood at night. Often times it's nothing more than an obnoxious kitty who's trying to throw a late night party in our yard, intentionally driving our dog bonkers. And therefore ruining our circadian rhythm. This is why I hate cats. Also because I'm allergic to them and they make my eyes red & itchy. And because they have the most presumptuous egos, rubbing up and down on my leg, assuming that surely I'm just DYING to pet the darn thing. Gross. Apologies to all my feline-loving pals, but I can't do the whole cat hair thing. They make my knees wobbly and my tummy nervous.

Anyway, this particular evening (and by evening, I mean very early morning) Dan opened the door and let Truman run out into the backyard and do his watchdog "thing" and thoroughly investigate any unauthorized activity that had taken place moments before.

That's when Dan walked back into the bedroom a few minutes later and said, "Um, babe? I'm pretty sure Truman just got sprayed by a skunk."

To which I growled, "What do you mean you're PRETTY SURE? Did he or--- OH DEAR LORD IN HEAVEN! THE SMELL! THE EYE WATERING STENCH! GET OUT OF THE BEDROOM! IT'S ON YOU! MY NOSTRILS HAVE BEEN SINGED! WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DOOOOO?"

So yes. Truman had indeed gotten sprayed by a skunk.


Being new to the dog-skunking world, we were completely clueless as to what to do. Sure, we could Google step-by-step directions, but how does one sort through millions of people's opinions when time is OF THE ESSENCE? Also, firing up the computer sounded like a lot of work, and I was right in the middle of some serious REM sleep that may or may not have involved John Mayer dreams.... maybe if I just close my eyes, this will all disappear.....


Oh, wait. It's really difficult to fall back asleep when there's that annoying SKUNK SMELL PERMEATING THE HOUSE. (I'd like to take a quick detour here and pose the question: do skunks do anything that contributes to our society/earth in a positive way? Seriously. Is their only job to spray other animals and ruin perfectly wonderful early morning dreams? Please tell me they have another purpose in this world.)

This is when a Night-Owl best buddy comes in handy. Whenever something happens in our lives and we don't know quite what to do, or how to handle it- particularly between the hours of 11pm-5am, we call our awesome friend, who also happens to be named Dan. If you don't have a Dan in your life, you should get one, because generally speaking, they bring about tremendous things. Sometimes having two Dans in my life gets confusing, but I'm not complaining. For the purposes of avoiding any further confusion, we'll refer to my non-husband Dan as Dan2.


Please meet Dan2 (+ the ocean):

Over the years, Dan2 has helped us in many late night urgent-but-not-quite-emergency types of situations. There was the time we heard gunshots. There was the time our neighbor insisted on driving his tractor at 2 a.m. There was the time we needed a marriage therapist. There was the time we were bored, or had a rare case of insomnia. Naturally, Dan2 is always wide awake, so over the years he's become our go-to man when we need something from the outside world. 


Night Owls are quite handy.


As my Dan was stripping off his skunk scented PJ's, I didn't know what to do other than reach for the phone and call Dan 2. Being a dog owner himself and having had multiple dog-skunking experiences, he was full of suggestions. We were instructed to make a potion of tomato juice, baking soda, and hydrogen peroxide. He stayed on the phone with us, walked us through the process, and helped us create a shopping list of necessary items. Oh, that's right. A grocery store visit was necessary because we didn't have any large cans of tomato juice on hand. Not just any grocery store....the one about 15 minutes away was the only one operating 24 hours.

It's hard to be a dog owner.


So my Dan was off, residual skunk smell and all. Moments later, as I was prepping the scene for dog-washing and deskunking, I heard a car pull into our driveway. It's now probably around 2:30 a.m., and the only thing that comes to my mind is, Great. Dan just got in an accident on the way to the grocery store while retreiving tomato juice. The cops are here to tell me he's been taken to the hospital. My house reeks of skunk. This is officially the dumbest night of my life.

But really, it was Dan2, ready to save the day.
You guys....he showed up with (are you ready for this?): every necessary de-skunking ingredient, rain gear attire, gloves, breathing mask, dog washing potions & equipment, and even a dog-washing bench to sit on. I was in my unmatching PJ's with bed head and morning breath, grateful but speechless.


As if this wasn't enough, he walked in with his game face, ready for battle and said, "Where's the dog? I've got this." AND THEN HE PROCEEDED TO WASH AND DE-SKUNK OUR DOG. I'm telling you: y'all need to get yourselves a Night Owl best friend. But I'm not willing to share ours; you'll have to go find your own.
Anyway, I love a good 3 a.m. photo op:

Don't be scared; though it looks like blood, really Truman is just covered in tomato paste. That stuff works magic.

Here's Dan2, the only person I know who can de-skunk a dog WITH A SMILE.

Here we are, approximately 3a.m. Happy to have a clean puppy. Even happier that somehow we avoided getting our pretty little hands dirty & stinky.

After repeatedly thanking Dan2 for his above & beyond helpful services, he replied with,

"What? That's just what friends do. It's no big deal. You'd do the same for me."

I don't know how to break this to you, Dan2, but I'll try to do this gently. I'm pretty sure that if you ever called me at 2 in the morning to tell me your dog got sprayed by a skunk, the chances of me getting out of bed and driving to your house to help clean up the mess are slim to none. I don't even think I would hear the phone ring at that hour. In fact, I can say with the utmost confidence that I would definitely NOT show up at your house ready to bathe your dog.


But please take note: we love you dearly. We'll just have to find alternative ways to show you.

Summer's Finest

Many months ago, in the early days of Spring, Dan & I took a hot date to Costco and bought a three pack of already happily-blooming tomato plants, which included three different varieties. We were so excited! Time for tomato planting & harvesting, sweet family of mine! We eat a plethora of tomatoes around here- almost every night in our salads, always on burgers (remember these sliders? Still a family favorite), and often just drizzled with olive oil & kosher salt on top. In fact, I've been known to spend half of my weekly Farmer's Market budget on gorgeous (and the not so gorgeous, but cheaper and still just as tasty) heirloom tomato varieties, so the thought of going out to our own backyard to pick them was a concept too exciting for words (that is, for Mom; not so much for everyone else).

But I was nervous. I've been known to kill almost every plant we've tried to grow around here. I don't know what I'm doing wrong- I water, I whisper to them, I wait, and I give them space. Inevitably, they die because apparently finding the balance between too much water and not quite enough is impossible when you're me. My basil plant is in a complete state of rebellion- constantly trying to reflower itself and will only give me basil leaves the size of my thumb nail. How am I supposed to make pesto with thumb nail sized basil leaves? It's a disgrace to my Italian ancestors. Maybe basil rearing skills skip a generation. This is my defense.

Anyway, we were left with no choice but to forge ahead! Mom's non-green thumb was not going to keep us from trying. Even the kids got involved in the watering process. No amount of stubborn green tomatoes could kill our hopeful little spirits!

Watering tomatoes is really so much more fun in a swimsuit. Here, Ella is proving that point.

Ben takes his tomato watering quite seriously. So sometimes I "accidentally" spray him with the hose to get him squeling with sheer deight.

In defense of the green tomatoes, we had an unusually cold, gray summer here in Santa Cruz. Apparantly this does not mesh well with tomato growing. Plants really do need sunshine- who knew? And then suddenly, one day, the tomatoes all got together and decided to turn red. The most beautiful deep tomato red you've ever seen! Even though the army of snails had their way with my plants over the course of the summer, we must have done something right. Because we have more tomatoes than I know what to do with. So for now, I line them up on our kitchen windowsill and show them off like they're my personal trophy collection. Who's suddenly in the mood for a Caprese salad?



Good Stuff

Oh, how I needed this today. Perhaps you do, too.

“All that is necessary to break the spell of inertia and frustration is this: Act as if it were impossible to fail.”

– Dorothea Brande

Footloose

Back in the day before I was married and had kids, I always pictured myself having spontaneous dance parties with my family, the kind where everyone genuinely lets loose and displays their inner dance genius. Then, once I met and fell in love with Dan, I knew these future dance parties would be inevitable. The man is a dancing machine, one I can hardly keep up with. On the dance floor he's been known to steal the show, particularly at weddings. There was the time he wore his tie around his head, bandanna style, while moonwalking. There was the time he used the trees at an outside reception as dance props. There was the time where SEVERAL people grew suspicious that he might be a "wedding crasher", given the way he moved with such uninhibited freedom. There was even a very animated T-Rex impersonation during the toast portion of our own wedding, but I digress.

So it should come as no surprise that our offspring have a deep passion for dancing, and find ways to incorporate it into our daily routine as often as possible. Example: After a long, tiring day, Ben might offer this gem of advice: "Mom, we should probably just go home, and have a dance party." And of course, we usually do because nothing can melt my anger or stress or frustration like seeing my babies trying to imitate their crazy parents on the living room dance floor.

I am beyond thrilled that I was somehow able to capture this mini mid-day dance party with the kiddos. Make sure to keep a close eye on Ben- all the way up to the very last second of the video.

Oh my.