Tomato Soup/Marinara Sauce

1 cup beef broth, divided

1 TB brown sugar

3 TB balsamic vinegar

1 TB soy sauce

5 garlic cloves

1 cup chopped onion

2- 28 oz cans whole tomatoes, drained

¾ cup half and half

Cracked pepper

Preheat oven to 500

Combine ½ c broth, sugar, vinegar, soy sauce in a small bowl.

Place garlic, onions and tomatoes in a 9x13 pan, greased

Pour broth mixture over tomato mixture

Bake 500 degrees for 50 minutes or until vegetables are lightly browned

Place tomato mixture in a blender, add remaining ½ cup broth and half and half. Blend till smooth. Strain mixture thru sieve into bowl. Garnish with black pepper. Serves about 4.

When I made this, I didn't strain it. Just blended it till it was pretty smooth, maybe 3-4 minutes. It ended up pretty thick as made above, so I would either add more milk, half n half or water to make more soupy or just make as a sauce and serve over pasta. Also, I didn't have enough cans of whole tomatoes, so I used some diced. Seemed to work fine. The flavor was great. 

Enjoy!

balloons

We went and saw the hot air balloons this morning - 

this was one of our favorites, it's a ladybug.

Colm pointing out a balloon

Caeden watching one coming over the trees

This was too cute not to include......... It needs a good caption!

Just some random pictures from the last week..................

Colm - almost 18 months

Caeden - 3 yrs

Up in Florissant at WBC church picnic

Please note the red ribbon...... he was very proud to wear it. 

He got it for "running a race with Nate" - it was a 2 legged race :-) 

Rather amusing with 2 - 3 yr olds!

Being a boy

Fences and boxes

 The other day the boys were playing outside and I went to chase Colm away from the garage side of the house and da's truck - AGAIN - I said "I wish I had a fence here". There is little the boys could actually hurt themselves with roaming the entire 5 acres, but I just cannot let a 17 month old roam too far from sight :-) And when Kieran is home working and they know it, they often try to go around there to help him out, which isn't always appreciated :-) 

Anyway, a few minutes later Caeden came and told me he made me a fence...............it was so sweet I had to take a picture of it. The thought was nice, though you can see it was rather ineffective as a fence :-)

Anyone with kids know how easily kids can amuse themselves with the simplest things. When I finished off the tea box this weekend I gave it to Colm to play with. It didn't take him long to figure out the best use for it was a hat. Sorry the pictures are a bit fuzzy, he kept moving around and I think I was trying hard not to laugh at him, he looked so funny. 

It's August 15......... it's 46 degrees out and raining....... 

it was in the 80's 2 days ago........... go figure!

Dad's are so much more fun then mom's....... it was pouring rain the other day and Caeden wanted to go out. I said "no" cause I didn't want to deal with wet toddlers :-) Da figured they would have fun........ they did :-)

at the county fair

We went to the Elbert County Fair yesterday. They were doing a Fiddle Fest, so we watched that for a little while. Saw the animals, the alpacas and pigs were the highlight. 

Colm watching the alpaca..... he seriously stood there and watched these 2 animals do nothing for a good 10 minutes. And kept wanting to go back!

Sitting watching someone play the fiddle, he's attempting to play along. 

Caeden watched for awhile but then decided playing in the sand was more entertaining

Random pictures

Sorry I haven't gotten new pictures up lately. But here's a handful of ones over the last couple weeks - nothing too exciting......... just life and boys! 

Colm checking out the grasshopper

Cousins - 8 under 4 1/2......... half of them crying....... oh well, we can at least prove someday we attempted to get pictures for them :-) And regardless, they were together occasionally! And really, they do enjoy playing together, everyone was pretty happy most of the time!

in age order, left to right

Madelyn, Caeden, Ella, Dean, Grace, Colm, Abi and Charlotte

Caeden and Maddie digging a hole together

I think they are digging to China to see Uncle Andrew

Caeden going thru a bag of girl clothes for Alannah

He had to try on all the hats.........

"Oh, look a pair of jeans, just like mine!"

Colm

"just put me down for my nap already......."