Something Warm for a Cold Winter Evening

Bob is excellent when it comes to thinking about what to cook on the spot. Coming home from a long day of work, he can just peek in the fridge and throw in the ingredients together to make something that warms our hearts and bodies. Thank God for a husband who cooks! He's always full of great ideas..within minutes too!

But of course, Mel is
right there trying to support him as best as she can.

Sometimes the nights can get cold..especially now when it's winter. So, cooking something like potato soup was the most warm-hearted idea and he got Mel thinking about the soup all day the following day! It reminded both of them of the Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana soup but with a different kick to it.

Here are the ingredients. Remember, Bob cooks by "feeling" so the quantity of each ingredient may not be specified here:

1) Approx. 3 large potatoes, unpeeled, rinsed, diced into cubes
2) 1 sweet brown onion sliced (Mel's idea)
3) cilantro to taste (Mel's idea)
4) about 3 pieces of Italian sausage diced and cooked in frying pan
5) Kosher salt & ground pepper to taste
6) approx 2 Tbs. of flour in cold water until smooth consistency
7) about 3/4 full boiling water in pot
8) 2 drops of vanilla (secret ingredient that brings out the flavor)

Boil potatoes, cooked sausages, flour, cilantro, onions in pot. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add vanilla. Boil until potatoes are soft to bite.

Enjoy some hot soup tonite!

Christmas Dinner 2005

This Christmas, it was a quieter Christmas compared to previous years. We actually all fit around the dining table, according to our cousin Randy, which is a rare event. It was more personal and we had more intimate conversations. Usually our Christmas dinners would include cousins and grandparents from both sides of the family and we would all spread out around the house, on floors or couches, wherever we find space.

The "Be Our Guest" post did not do justice since the pork loin pictured was not actually Bob's pork loin. On Christmas Dinner, while I cooked sticky rice (Randy's favorite) made with shitake mushroom, ginger, garlic, dried scallop, green scallions, and of course, 2 cups premium sweet rice, and 2 cups of regular short-grain rice,

Bob cooked his pork loin for the second time to treat our family. So besides the number of vegetarian dishes, this was a favorite alongside my parent's roast prime rib! So delight yourself in these almost professional pictures taken by Bob. It looks even better than the pictures taken off the web!