Ann's Words

I am sad for any woman who doesn’t have a group of quilting friends.  Oh, how I love being with my quilt group every Wednesday!  We visit and stitch and counsel with each other about life, about our families, about food and current events, and about our quilting projects.  We fill each others’ souls with goodness and cheer.  I am grateful for these women.

We also have really good food.  Today’s soup was five star.  Here’s the recipe:

Spicy Lasagna Soup – Ann Takasaki

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 sweet onion, chopped
½ cup celery, chopped
2 red bell peppers, chopped
chopped zucchini and yellow squash
8 ounce fresh mushrooms, sliced (I added mushrooms to original recipe)
6 cloves garlic, chopped (or use a garlic press)
1 pound Italian sausage (sweet or spicy depending on preference)
1 tablespoon dried basil
1 tablespoon dried oregano
2 teaspoons dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes (use less if you don’t like the soup to be spicy)
1/2 cup tomato paste
1/2 cup dry white wine (I used cooking white wine)
4 cups chicken broth
1 can (28 ounce) crushed tomatoes
1/2 cup cream
1 cup shredded Fontina cheese (recipe calls for Provolone, but it does not melt well, so I use Fontina)
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
8-10 lasagna noodles, broken in pieces (I use bowtie pasta)

Sauté sausage in olive oil until no longer pink. (don’t over cook.) Add chopped garlic part way through cooking sausage. In separate pot sauté onion, celery, and red pepper in butter. (I like vegetables al dente so I cook them separately. I sautéed the mushrooms in another separate frying pan.) Drain sausage and add crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, basil, oregano, and thyme. Simmer 10 minutes. Add grated cheese slowly, stirring to allow cheese to melt completely. Stir in chicken broth and cream. Transfer onion, celery, red pepper, and mushrooms (with cooking liquid) to soup pot. Meanwhile, cook pasta in separate pot until al dente. Drain. Add pasta to soup pot.

To serve, shred fresh Parmesan cheese on top.

Note: I like to make the soup the day before allowing the flavors to blend. However, I cook the pasta the next day and add it to the soup before serving.

Karen Ashton, Karin Crawford, Helen Clegg, Ann Lewis, Penny Stephenson, Sharon Geurtz, Lisa Johnson, Melissa Clark, Ann Takasaki, Marsha Livingstone

This week I brought 3 quilts I inherited while we were in Bamako.  I’ll tell their story in a later post.  What treasures!

I came home today and cut out another quilt.  This one is called Tell Me A Story by my friend, Amy McClellan.

It’s been a sewing sort of week.  I’ve been sewing and pressing these little half square triangles out of scraps and strips and leftovers from other projects.  I’m afraid my FTC (failure to count) problem has kicked in again.  I get going on something and I don’t stop.  I’m going to make these half square triangles into adorable little pinwheels and put them all together into a quilt.  They hardly make a dent in my fabric piles–they seem to just come out of nowhere–a strip here, a piece there–and before you know it, I’ll have a spectacular quilt!

I’ve also put together another batch of pillowcases for the grandkids.  I’m going through a bin of fabric that’s been waiting for this day.  When I asked Adam which ones he wanted for his kids, he said, “how many can we take?”  That was the right answer.  I told him as many as he wanted.  I can always make more!

I have one more batch of about ten in the works.  I am very happy about how little fabric went into the trash this week.

Oh, how nice it is to be back with my dear quilting friends!  I took a couple of quilt projects with me to Bamako, but never really got them out while we were there.  It’s been a joy to reunite with my Wednesday quilt group.  Being with these good friends and stitching together feeds my soul.

Not only do we stitch, we talk about what’s going on in our world, ways we can help, things we can do, and what we can pray for.  This is a group of kind humanitarian-minded women who do good in the world.

Today was my turn to make lunch.  I brought our favorite Chicken Nacho Casserole, refried beans, chips and salsa, fruit and some Braetzle cookies.

Here’s the recipe for the Chicken Nacho Casserole:

Chicken (about 8 breasts, cooked, and cut up)
1-2 small cans of green chilies
2 cups of sour cream (you can also use cottage cheese, or both)
some chopped green onion or dehydrated onion
a sprinkle of cumin seeds
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 package of corn or flour tortillas cut or torn into 1″ pieces
grated jack & cheddar cheese (lots) (mix some in and put some on top)

If you like it more gooey, add a little milk.

Mix it all together in a large bowl, put into a 9 x 13″ casserole dish, cover with cheese and chopped green onions.

Bake at 325 for 35-40 min, until it’s hot and bubbly
Serve with chips & salsa