I am Elizabeth Bennet...

Just a little bit of fun for you Jane Austen fans... Take this quiz to find out which Jane Austen character you are...

(I'm just glad they chose the picture from the BBC P&P movie... I'm not the biggest fan of the 2005 version.)

Elizabeth Bennet 78% Elinor Dashwood 72% Marianne Dashwood 56% Emma Woodhouse 56% Jane Bennet 50% Charlotte Lucas 41% Lady Catherine 28% Which Jane Austen Character are You? (For Females) Long Quiz!!! created with QuizFarm.com

Spring Training...

Spring Training... it certainly doesn't feel like Spring or look like Spring, but Spring Training has been underway for 2 days making this girl just a wee bit excited!! I may live up here in Reds/Indians country and have the new Washington Nationals AAA in my backyard, but my loyalty lies 1,170 miles away deep in the heart of Texas... Go Astros!!

Don't worry, though. My love of baseball runs pretty deep. I'd come watch your 3 year old play t-ball if it was the only game in town.

Speaking of the Nationals, they are the new affiliate of the Columbus Clippers (formerly the AAA team for the Yankees). So to celebrate the new affiliation, the Nationals and the Orioles will hold an exhibition game right here in the Capital City. First time a MLB team played here in a decade.

Potato Soup...

Another cold day... This afternoon I'm taking dinner over to a friend who just had a baby. I usually bring over a Roasted Chicken Dinner because when my neighbor brought one to us after our daughter was born, I thought it was just the perfect dinner for a nursing mom. However, today with temperatures in the single digits and piles and piles of snow all over the ground, the sound of soup simmering all day long sounded even better. So, on today's menu is Potato Chowder with Bacon. You can find the original recipe at Mrs. Wilt's site, The Sparrow's Nest, or read below for her recipe with a few changes that I made.

Potato Chowder

1 box scalloped potatoes
1/2 cup bacon, cooked and crumbled (the original recipe called for ham, but I didn't have any on hand)
2 cups chicken broth
1/2 stalk celery, finely chopped
1/2 small onion, finely chopped
4 cups milk
1/3 cup flour
Salt & Pepper or House Seasoning, to taste
Additional milk for thinning

Add scalloped potatoes, sauce packet, chicken broth, bacon or ham, onion, celery, salt & pepper to crock pot. Mix together milk and flour, and add to crock pot. Stir well. Cook on Low for 6 hours. Add additional milk throughout the cooking process to thin the soup to your liking. Garnish with green onions, shredded cheese, crumbled bacon, diced ham, or whatever you like.

My Notes:

• This is a crock pot recipe, and it couldn't be any easier to make.
• The first time I made this recipe I subsituted "Manda" sausage for the ham... I rarely have ham on hand, but I have a freezer full of Manda sausage "imported" from Louisiana (thank you, Mama). The sausage was okay, but I think the flavor of the sausage was a little too overbearing for the soup. Plus, my husband was shocked that I had not saved the sausage for Gumbo or Red Beans --- his favorites. This time I am using bacon in lieu of the ham... it's very good, more traditional. One of these days I'll actually have ham ready to use in this recipe.
• Even though this is a crock pot recipe, I don't like to leave it alone for the day. I find myself stirring it pretty frequently and adding milk to thin it out as it cooks. Neglecting it just seems to create a crusty top that should not be stirred into the soup and will have to be removed later.
• I also prefer to cook this on Low rather than on High. I prefer the texture after a long, slow cook.

Oh, the smell is wonderful. I think I'll add a baguette from the french bakery in town, a salad, some homemade cookies and call that a meal!

"Calamity" Day...

The snowstorm has come and passed (hopefully), and today is yet another "calamity" day according to the Worthington School District... Doesn't mean much to us since no one here is in school, but it is an interesting choice of words for this Southern girl. I think back home we would've just called this a "Hurricane Day." So, what does calamity day mean for us?

• A solid snow/ice layer about 10 inches or more thick
• The inability to move either car out of the driveway without carving them out of the snow and ice


• A few hours worth of work chiseling and shoveling the snow from the doorways, driveways, walkways, and stairways (thank you, BDP)


• Sledding down the little hill in our front yard --- a perfect sized hill for a preschooler


• Icicles 3 feet long dangling from the roof


• A cancelled (or rescheduled) Chris Tomlin/Matt Redman/Louie Giglio concert that was very highly anticipated... it was for the best


• Soup --- very hot soup --- would've been gumbo had the ingredients already been on hand


• A Valentine's Day that almost went without chocolate (a late trip to the market late in the day saved us!)
  
• A daily schedule thrown out in favor of a "bonus" day hanging out with our little family... well, technically Brian was working from home, but I can't imagine how he concentrated with all the kiddie noise in the background!

There's plenty more to thaw around here, so we'll just have to see what happens tomorrow...

Extreme Home Makeover, Columbus...

This Sunday night (February 11th) ABC is airing the episode of Extreme Home Makeover that was filmed here in Columbus --- about a mile from Brian's office. Here's the synopsis...

"Thomas Family," parts 1 & 2

An ex-Marine who risked his life to save two police officers at the World Trade Center during the September 11 attacks will be honored with a new home in two emotional back-to-back episodes.

To see the homesite MI Homes put together during the construction, click here. To see Dylan waving his flag and waiting for the family to arrive, click on "Photos", "Sunday", Photo #3 on the MI website.

The Heart of the Home...

I suppose it could be said that the kitchen remodel is officially over. Only a few holes --- one the result of our saw-crazed electrician --- remain unpatched, and these will be done once the temperatures around here reach double digits and my fingers thaw! So, would you like to take a peek? Well, for those of you who have never been to our house, you have to see the before pictures before you can truly appreciate the after pictures.

We live in a 1940s Cape Cod nestled in a quiet WWII-era neighborhood. This 65-year old house is absolutely wonderful, and the process of God leading us to it is truly a testament to His perfect provisions. The story of this kitchen remodel, particularly His timing of everything, is also further evidence of His constant leading, but the story is too long to post here.

What I call the "footprint" of the kitchen didn't change a bit... but nearly everything else did. We replaced the cabinets, painted the walls, replaced the sink and fixtures, replaced the floor, new curtains, some new decorations, and ultimately we will replace the ice box too! Yes, I called the refrigerator an ice box --- I am not from here, remember!

Here are the before pictures (plus a few silly pictures of Dylan, Brooklyn, and Riley playing inside of the old empty cabinets --- I had to post them)...

Remodeling the kitchen proved to be an enormous disruption to normal daily life... especially when done during Christmas! The results were worth it though, and the efficiency of this kitchen surpasses the old one incredibly. Those of you with small kitchens know how important it is to have a well-organized and well-designed kitchen to maximize its usability. While we were unable to do some of the "major" changes that we would have ideally liked to do, the changes that were made have definitely created a kitchen that is more functional than the old one... and much nicer looking too! So, welcome to our new kitchen...

For me, the feeling of this kitchen is overwhelmingly "Southern" - the dark green walls, the oil-rubbed bronze fixtures, the black & white pictures of New Orleans on the soffit, the brick floors, the bronze fleur-de-lis that pepper the kitchen with little reminders of home, and the magnolia swag that Brian suggested. A little bit of decorating still remains, but we are so happy with the result thus far... ya'll come by, you hear!