little things i love

Recent Posts

    • chicken noodle soup


      Last week a yucky stomach bug made its way though our house, and my little one and I have both been dealing with allergies and head colds. When anyone around here gets the slightest hint of an illness, I break out the chicken noodle soup recipe I’ve been perfecting the last couple of years. I don’t think I’ve stumbled into any new territory here, and I’m sure part of it is in my head. But they say chicken soup can cure a cold and as for this family: as soon as the mirepoix hits the sizzling olive oil and those delicious smells begin to fill the house, we’re already feeling a little bit better. It’s the best homemade medicine I’ve found!

      Chicken Noodle Soup

      2 pounds chicken breasts
      mirepoix: 2 cups celery, 2 cups carrots, 1 cup onion – finely chopped
      3 and 1/2 containers (32 ounce) chicken broth
      10 ounce bag wide egg noodles
      olive oil
      dried oregano
      dried thyme
      coarse salt
      pepper

      Saute the chicken breasts in a large stock pot with a little olive oil. As it’s cooking, break the chicken into smaller pieces and season with salt, pepper, dried oregano and thyme. Remove chicken from pot and cool. In the same stock pot, season mirepoix with salt and pepper and cook in olive oil until soft, about 10 minutes. (I like to season as I go rather than wait until the end.) Shred the cooled chicken and return it to the pan with the veggies. Add 3 1/2, 32-ounce containers of chicken broth (112 ounces) and bring to a rolling boil. Add the egg noodles and cook until tender. Soup will continue to thicken and cook down over time, and additional liquid may need to be added when reheating leftovers.

    • seizing the moment

      So at 8:30 this past Monday morning, my phone rang. My friend Stacy told me she’d been excitedly waiting since 7:00 to call me with the news that Julie Andrews was coming to Seattle this weekend to promote her newest book in The Very Fairy Princess series she writes with her daughter. Ms. Andrews would be doing a few signings, but only for those lucky enough to get a coveted spot. My friend knows me so well – I mean, it’s JULIE ANDREWS!

      This family is a little (OK, a lot) obsessed with “The Sound of Music.” We come by it naturally: my mom, and her mom, both loved the movie way before I was born. For months after it was released, my mom spent every Saturday in Speedway, Indiana, riding the bus downtown to watch the von Trapps sing and dance through the gorgeous Salzburg countryside! Of course with two generations before me already hooked, I came to love it too. And from the time they were little, I’ve shared the movie with my girls. They love the singing, they love the dancing, they love it all – and it makes me so happy.

      My husband Drew and I are all about seizing the moment. We realize not only how lucky we are, but that life is short and our precious girlies will only be young once. We don’t want to leave anything on the table as far as they are concerned. A couple of years ago, we were planning a family trip to Italy around the same time Drew needed to do some work in Graz, Austria. It only took a bit of discussion for us to realize what an opportunity we had stumbled into. Austria means Salzburg and, to us, Salzburg means “The Sound of Music.” We got to work. Unbelievably, the actual von Trapp family home is now a hotel, and we were able to stay there for two nights. We booked a day-long tour with an amazing guide, a woman who knew every detail of both the making of the movie and the actual von Trapp family history.

      Salzburg was beautiful – the hills really did feel alive with the sound of music! The girls loved the marionette museum we visited where they got to work with their own puppets. We toured the large and impressive church where the wedding scene was filmed and saw the lovely little church where the real Maria and Georg actually were married. At the famous gazebo where Liesl sang “16 Going on 17,” I forced my boy to dance with me to the girls’ delight. The best part was our visit to the Mirabell Gardens, where some of the most recognizable sequences from the movie were filmed. Drew waited patiently as us girls consulted our iTouch to find the exact scenes from the movie and then acted them out singing and dancing our way through the afternoon. We will never forget it!

      And today we found ourselves waiting at the book signing for the chance to meet Julie Andrews face to face. We were close to the front of the line, and it was cute to see the girls peering between the bookshelves to get a first glimpse as she entered the store. She looked so regal, addressed Bella and Sophie by name (her voice is exactly the same as in the movies) and had a lovely conversation with our family. It was thrilling – a once in a lifetime opportunity to meet such an icon. We love her as Mary Poppins and Queen Clarisse from “The Princess Diaries.” Most of all, we love her as Maria and for all the joy she and “The Sound of Music” has brought to four generations of our family. Just to see her in person, if only for a few minutes, was another perfect moment to seize!