SOUPer Sunday...."APPLES, MONSTERS and PIZZA SOUP - Oh My...."

It's Sunday in the Northeast and in our house, on Sunday's, in the Fall, we have a "SOUP DAY" with 2 other families. 

Today started no different, other than we all gathered at our friend Edie & Eric's house for breakfast.  Alicia & John brought bagels from Brueggers and I made Oscar Mayer Turkey Bacon (yum-o-licious).  Edie & Eric made pancakes and potatoes.  A good, healthy and nutritios breakfast for a fun-filled day if you ask me.

Ok, so after clean-up, we gathered the troops (6 kids and 4 adults), unfortunately Alicia was under the weather and Danny was working a double, so we marched on without them, though they were with us in spirit.

We got in our vehicles and headed toward Indian Ladder Farms to "Pick Your Own" apples.  Indian Ladder Farms is probably about a 25 minute drive, in good traffic, so when we got there to find out that they did not have "Pick Your Own" apples due to the frost, they had picked them already and were selling the bags.  Well, isn't the fun of apple picking, actually picking them yourself?  Yeah, we thought so too. 

So, we went to the store on the grounds, bought some apple cider donuts and apple cider, grabbed a picnic table, took in a snack while Emma went on a Pony Ride.  Then, we took a stroll to visit the animals on the farm.

Our next journey was to another farm we had passed on our way to Indian Ladder, though I didn't get the name.  It was on Route 146 toward Voorheesville and there was a huge white and red sign at the entrance stating "PICK YOUR OWN APPLES".  Our minds were curious, so we back-tracked and entered the dirt/grass road to find tons of people and tons of apples - not only were the kids excited, but so were we.

We apple picked and picked apples did we do. 

So, did I fail to say that when I woke up this am, I put together my Pizza Soup and let is cook on low all day while I was out?  I came across this awesome website consisting of 365 days of crock pot recipes.  Stephanie O'Dea has an obsession with her crock pot, so one day she decided to eat every day, "A Year of Slow Cooking", from recipes she invented in her crock pot.  Well, I did and when I returned from apple picking (some 5 hours later), my house smelled yummy!

While the pizza soup was cooking, Kylie, Emma and I decided to watch a movie.  As much as we wanted to watch "Beauty and the Beast", we couldn't find it, so we chose "Where the Wild Things Are".  As a young girl, I remember vividly reading this book.  My girls also have this book, which we have read, so when it came out in a movie it was a no brainer that we would watch it.  What a fantastic movie.  Yes, I know, this has been out for a while.  So, I am a little slow these days for watching movies with my girls, however, we own this movie, and glad we do.  Where the Wild Things Are is a movie about a boy named Max, who loved to pretend he was an animal.  He got into a fight with his mom one night and ran.  He ran so much that he got into a boat and ended up on an island where he became king of the wild things.  So I don't give the movie away, because I can by accident, let's just say I cried at the end and Kylie turned to look at me, like, really mom.  I wiped my tears, and said, stop looking at me while laughing...  Ever since I had Emma, my emotions are rampid.  I cry at all movies it seems.  Let's just say I have a tissue box in almost every room of the house.

Ok, so the movie was over and dinner was ready.  We did not end up getting together with everyone tonight for soup, because now 2 of the kids were home sick, passed out.  Since tomorrow is Columbus Day and almost everyone is off of work (not me), we post-poned to tomorrow.

This is a picture of the Pizza Soup.  The girls and I still had this for dinner, as did Edie, Eric and Julie.  Everyone else will still get tomorrow.  I followed the recipe to the t, though I did add a 1/2 lb of cut up Soppresatta (yum).  The flavors in this are amazing.  The sound of it, I know, isn't something that jumps out at you, but trust me, this is such a delicious and hearty meal.  Definitely give it a try - your entire family will love it.  Here is the recipe.

Our soup day consists of each family making a soup, bringing it to one of our houses and we have a smorgasboard.  John has been making bread in his new bread machine, and sometimes we have other food.  But Sundays are mostly time to get together with friends, sharing food, laughs and good times.

Happy Sunday.  Come back next week to see what I cook up.