Two For Tuesday

Somewhere in Blogville, someone hosts something called "Tackle It Tuesday". I know I've seen it, I just can't remember where. It's a clever concept. I wish I was compelled (and organized and motivated) enough to tackle a task every single Tuesday. Then I could take pictures of productivity and rave about it here on my blog. I suppose most of the messes around here are so far in the lead, I don't stand a chance of chasing them down and tackling them. But I do have my moments, and from time to time I am able to engineer and execute an idea effectively. This decade it just so happened on a Tuesday.


It seems Emma's collection of "stuff" has grown the past few months. She's hit that sweet spot in development and morphed into a little creature who is interactive and curious, and wants to be doing something all the time. So, she needs "stuff" to keep her busy. I suddenly felt like the entire downstairs looked like F.A.O. Schwarz. I headed to the Super Target, where I generally wander home living for thrills, and to stay current on storage basics. Turns out, these thrifty cubes I've been eyeing are on sale this week. I grabbed a set, along with some cute fabric drawers. It doesn't exactly scream Pottery Barn, but I think it holds promise for containing baby mania.

I forgot how much toddlers love unloading.

The thrill is in opening, dumping, and overturning. I like how everything is now centrally located, and she looks so cute sitting in front of her new shelves playing.

My second project was soup making. I served a pot of corn chowder for lunch that I made over the weekend, and also put together a pot of tomato veggie soup. I love to have soups on hand this time of year. I'll share recipes at the end of the post. These two are hearty and nurturing.

That's two projects tackled for Tuesday. The week is young and I'm on a roll. By Friday I might even have a few things dusted and some laundry put away.

Finally, here's a cute picture that has nothing whatsoever to do with storage systems or steaming bowls of chowder. But it really belongs under a post about "tackling".

My fragile, delicate little flower, flattened while trying to tuck a football half her size. She never said a word. A tuffy, that little flower is.

Toodles. On Tuesday.

CORN CHOWDER

5 medium sized red potatoes; peeled, diced, and boiled

1 chicken bouillon cube

Handful of shredded carrots

2 T butter

1 can cream of chicken soup (fat free is fine)

2 cups milk (or cream if you're daring)

1 can shoepeg corn

1 can cream corn

Boil potatoes until tender. (I usually throw a chicken bouillon cube in the water.) Drain well, then return to pot and mash a bit with a fork.

Meanwhile, in another pot, saute carrots in butter until soft and tender. Add soup to pan and mix well. Whisk in milk. Add corn and potatoes and simmer on a low heat.

(You can also fry bacon, use the bacon grease to saute the carrots, then serve crumbled, crisp bacon on top of your soup.)

TWO MINUTE TOMATO VEGGIE SOUP
Whisk together:

One large can tomato juice (about 46 ounces, I think?)

1 or 2 cans cream of mushroom soup, depending on how creamy you like it. (NOT fat free)

Add:

2 lbs. ground beef, browned and drained

2 bags frozen mixed veggies, steamed

Simmer on low heat, stirring occasionally.

(We like it with a handful of baby pasta tossed in, but not too much. Also, it's yummy with a package of baby sweet peas in butter sauce thrown in.)