Spring Soup

Spring has sprung! so I just have to share with you this soup my husband made this week. Inspired by our abundant crop of spring onions this year, his first thought was to find a french onion soup recipe, but found this one instead (from SippitySup):

Spring Onion Soup

This soup is made with fresh spring onions and not much else. Because it doesn't need it.    

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil very good extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
• 2 pound onions spring onions, bulbs, leaves and roots, chopped
• 1 pinch salt and pepper each salt and white pepper
• 1 cup low-sodium chicken stock low-sodium chicken stock
• 2 cup water water
• 1 clove garlic garlic, peeled and minced

---

Directions

Heat oil in a large soup pot over medium-high heat. Add all the onions and garlic, cook stirring occasionally until translucent, about 15 minutes. Season with salt and white pepper. Add the chicken stock and water. Bring to a boil, lower the heat and simmer for 15 minutes.
Remove the soup from heat, and let for a few minutes. Use an immersion belnderto puree until smooth. Divide soup among 4 bowls, drizzle with more oil, and serve.



This recipe, as stated, is pretty much just spring onions, and little else. So if you LOVE spring onions you will love this. My husband loved it, both my girls loved it (totally surprised!!) and I honestly wasn't that keen on it, but ate it knowing how much goodness was in this was totally worth it!

Spring onions are one of the SUPERFOODS! like spinach, and berries. They are so good for you if you have a cold (anti-bacterial properties in it help to fight against cold and flu). And they certainly add a jazz to a spring or summer salad. 

Our garden is awesome again this year, maybe because two people put a lot of time and effort into it :) This has become the bonding activity for my husband and his dad. They talk about it, plan it, fix it, weed it, worry about it, and harvest it :) And the harvest is the best - perfect spinach, delicious spring onions, peppers, cucumbers, green beans, cabbage, tomatoes, etc. 

Here is just a small portion of our Spring Onion harvest. It was a bonza (Australian for excellent) year!! Oh, and the spinach this year was so awesome - the best yet!

The real benefit of the garden and the game my husband provides is that we know where our food comes from. Our children are being raised on lean healthy venison and striper (fish), turkey and wild hog, and organically grown vegetables. About 90% of our meat supply is provided by my husband's hunting efforts. We will occasionally buy chicken or salmon. About 60% of our vegetable intake is from the garden - mostly 95% during the spring/summer growing months. My father-in-law also cans, pickles, and makes jam (from fruit from his trees or the neighbors).  Now all we need are our own chickens (I currently buy pastured eggs), especially considering how many eggs one little girl will eat - they are her favorite food!


It is a lot of work, but when you are passionate about it, and when you yield these beautiful crops, it makes it all worth it. 

Healthy food grows healthy kids :)

Linking to Life in Grace today for her Home. On Purpose link-up party.

Friday Favorites

What started as a cold, wet week, ended with a pretty spring day, so I thought today would be perfect to highlight some of my favorite spring fashion. Come on Spring!!

MINT PANTS

 Broken-in Straight Khakis from the GAP





J Crew Collection Cafe Capri in Green Glimmer Tweed






GREEN TOP

J Crew Smocked Top sleevless

Old Navy Eyelet Top

FLOWER PINS

Grey Cardigan with pretty ruffle flower pin

NAVY AND WHITE + DOTS!

GAP Chambray Academy Blazer

GAP Block Print Dolman

Spring Flowers

What a nice way to start the week back to school, after Spring Break, with pretty flowers in the bathroom. Who is ready for the beautiful spring weather to start? I think this lime-y green might be my "spring" color this season :)

 

We had a mixture of relaxing moments and "GET.IT.DONE" moments over our Spring break. Still organizing the kitchen. Got the carpets cleaned. Re-positioned some things in the playroom, and tidied the girls' bedroom! 

The girls and I also started our dollhouse. We are converting/"renovating" an old bookcase into a dollhouse for their mini-American Girl Dolls. The girls picked out all the "wallpaper" and "carpet" and some furniture. I'll share next post :)

Back to work, and school. Today is so peaceful...I mean, lonely without them ;)

Spring Wreath

With all this beautiful weather lately here (although a little windy) I decided to get out and start tidying up the front yard. Lots of weeding and trying to rack up leaves (sorry, neighbors - it was a little windy and, um, those leaves just flew away too quickly for me...oopps!). Also got the Spring Wreath out and on the front door. Of course I still need to finish painting the front door, but that's for another day ;)

We made our Spring Wreath last April - following is the original post and how we did it!

A TV-free day today, so we had to think of something to occupy our time. The park this morning was great - wore out 2yr old for her nap! Now to occupy 4yr old for a little while - so we decided (well, actually I decided) to make our Spring wreath for the front door!

I purchased a 12" wreath form from Joann's, and some green "grass" knitting wool(? thread? stuff? :D) I purchased 2 balls of the green stuff! You also need flower ribbon and pins (in a color that match your flowers, so for example we used pink, white and red pins for our wreath).

To start I just tied the end onto the wreath form.

Now the fun begins - winding on the wool, around and around and around the form. My 4yr old started out strong, but was soon fatigued and decided drawing was more her style. So I picked up where she left off to carry it on for the team!

She kindly stopped her artwork to take a few photos of the craft project in action! Thanks G!

At the half-way mark I tied on a bow.

I already had some flower ribbon, but you can easily find this type of ribbon at the craft store. Just make sure you are able to cut individual flowers out, or, in my case, a few to pin onto the wreath.

We also had a butterfly to add, and that finishes out the wreath! All ready to hang on the door. This craft was so simple. The only thing was the winding of the wool that took a little time, but once you got started and got to see it "grow" it was so cool and I couldn't wait to see it finished.

Beautiful!

{This is on the "blue door"}

Here it is now, on the yellow door plus some garden/flower photos (had fun testing out my new camera!)

Spring yet??

I don't know if it is in protest over the recent icy/snowy/freezing cold weather or because my 4 year old keeps walking around saying "Is it Spring yet?", but I went and did some on-line shopping today for Spring (because Gods knows I'm not going to actually venture outside today. He knows I'm not that crazy, or desperate, or have severe cabin-fever...um, right?)

I love this - very cute, love the color combinations:

I'm totally loving stripes at the moment. It started before winter and continues. Here are a few things I bought today from Old Navy:

I still love these looks from Anthropologie:

Well, according to news, Punxsutawney Phil emerged just after dawn on Groundhog Day to make his 125^th annual weather forecast in front of a smaller-than-usual crowd in rural Pennsylvania. It was a muddy, icy day when the groundhogs handlers reveal that he had not seen his shadow. So that means an early Spring!! Yeah :)