Monday Morning This and That

And, so, Christmas comes to bless us!
Comes to teach us how to find
The joy of giving happiness
And the joy of being kind.

Gertrude Tooley Buckingham

Good morning everyone. As another week begins I wish you all a week that passes smoothly and is filled with love and kindness. It's going to be another spring like day here with rain coming later in the day. I'm off to the mall this morning. Old Navy had some darn good sales, and I want to see if I can find a little something to wear on Christmas Eve. Rain won't be here until evening so I should be fine. Besides, it's so warm out I don't care if I get a little wet. It's those 'cold' rains that go through your bones.

Had a rather quiet weekend. Managed to get all my gifts wrapped.  I used to love wrapping presents, but the past few years it has been a bit of a chore.  But I do enjoy everything else about Christmas--the aromas, the food, the lights, the candles. 

Got my Kindle Fire on Friday.  Great buy for $40.  Had a hard time getting it to work, though.  Couldn't get it or hubby's new tablet hooked up on the Wifi.  I'd been working at hubby's for weeks with no luck. Kept telling me I had the wrong password.  And when I tried setting up my Kindle, it kept saying authentication error.  Finally, after stressing myself almost to the point of tears,  I discovered how to find my Belkin home page and guess what. I was actually using wrong password. I remembered back to May when we were trying to install the Belkin.  Took me almost 4 hours on the phone with various techs, none of whom spoke very good English. They were all in India and had thick accents. I was almost in tears by the time I was finally forwarded to an English speaking tech who finally guided me through. All I remember is his saying the password is on the bottom of router and talking me into using it, but now I also remember Ralph telling me to use something easier. I must have listened to Ralph because I found the password I had chosen on on my Belkin page. Both fire and tablet are hooked up to router. 

I've always wanted to eat at Olive Garden but never did...despite working right down the block from one for 10 years.  And now I probably never will because the sodium level in their food is much to high for me.  So, I jumped for joy when I came across the following recipe--Olive Garden's Pasta e Fagioli--and with a few tweaks I was able to make it my own....and it was DELICIOUS.  

 Olive oil

Lean ground beef

2 premo hot Italian sausages

4 cloves garlic

1 onion, diced

3 carrots diced

3 celery stalks diced

3 Chicken bullion cubes

1 small can tomato sauce

1 can diced tomatoes

Basil

Oregano

Thyme

1 can red kidney beans

salt and pepper

Bowtie pasta

Brown meats in olive oil.  Remove from pan.  Add more olive oil if necessary.  Saute garlic, onion, carrots and celery for about 4 minutes.  Add meats, tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, basil, oregano, 2 cups water, bullion cubes, kidney beans, and salt and pepper.  Bring to boil and simmer until veggies are tender and liquid boils down some.  Add cooked pasta and simmer for a few. 

And that's about it for this morning.  Have a good one.