Eaton At Home Personal Chef Services
Simple Sausage & White Bean Soup

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pound Italian sausage (I used hot chicken sausage) poke holes in each sausage
1 small onion diced
...1 red pepper diced
2 cloves crushed garlic
4 cups vegetable stock
1 large can of petite diced tomatoes
8 fresh basil leaves chopped fine
2 cans white beans
salt and pepper to taste

Add olive oil to large stock pot or dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add sausage and brown, about 10 minutes. Add onion and pepper and continue to saute the sausage and brown the veggies.Add the stock and let the sausages and let it come to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer, for 10 minutes covered. Remove the whole sausages with tongs and place on a cutting board. You can cut round slices or dice the sausage into cubes. Add it back to the pot and add the diced tomatoes. Keep the soup on a simmer and add some cracked pepper and salt to taste. Simmer for 20 minutes. Add the basil leaves and white beans and simmer for 10 more minutes. Serve with delicious crusty Italian bread!

Our Military

You know, growing up in Jacksonville, North Carolina, I didn't always appreciate the Marines who inhabited the town. When I was a "cool" young college kid running around, I though I was big and bad enough to use the word "Jar head" to describe them one day in front of my father. At that time, My father had just retired after 30 years, as a Major, in the Marines. My father was a patient man. He was never one to speak just to hear himself talk, but on that particular day, he rouse up (and I mean he rouse up, on his one leg) and informed me in a very clear and "in charge" manner that it was a "Jar head" who was clothing and feeding me and I had better remember that the next time I felt the need to mouth off about one in the future. I never made that mistake again, and in fact I ended up married to a man, who at one time was under the command of my father in Okinawa. A fact that was not discovered until he was out of the Marines, and came to pick me up on a first date, but that's a another story for another day. Now years later, I am the recipient of the "Standing Tall Award", presented to me by then Major General D.M. Mize, the Commanding General of Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, for my work with the "St. Mary School Christmas Greetings from Home" program I had started here in Wilmington, NC.

My office is full of all kinds of colorful shinny objects but that award has always been the first thing I have hung and is center of attention on my wall. I have come to truly appreciate our Military and love all of them for their sacrifice to this Nation. We ask them to perform a tough job and they exceed all of our expectations. I am proud of my involvement with the Soldier Angels Program, the DAV Auxiliary (of which I am a life member) and various other local programs for our troops and very proud of the "marines" in my own life, My father, my husband and my brother-in-Law. If you do nothing else in your life, take the time to thank a member of our military, past and/or present, for their service to our Nation, and never forget American is the home of the free, because of the Brave.


The Soldier

It is the soldier, not the reporter,
who has given us freedom of the press.

It is the soldier, not the poet,
who has given us freedom of speech.

It is the soldier, not the campus organizer,
who has given us the freedom to demonstrate.

It is the soldier, not the lawyer,
who has given us the right to a fair trial.

It is the soldier,
who salutes the flag,
who serves under the flag,
and whose coffin is draped by the flag,
who allows the protester to burn the flag.

By Father Dennis Edward O'Brien, USMC

Summer Tomatos

Ok, while this is the first thing I have posted on my Blog, it's a good'n. My friend Andrea gave me a wonderful gift the other day, this most delicious Tomato Casserole receipt. It's a family secret that her sister in law did her best to hoard from the family, until Andrea discovered it in her mother-in-laws cook book and gave it out to the world. Apparently this didn't make my girl's sister-in-law to happy, but hey, it's all about the recipe and I applaud Andrea's willing to share.

When I first read through it, I wasn't to excited about eating a "hot" tomato casserole in the middle of the summer, but "bless me father" I should never have doubted her self described "yummy" review. Still, when I went home and made it, per exact recipe, not only was I thinking this was too much, but how many tomatoes I was wasting for nothing. Well stupid is as stupid thinks, this thing is DELICIOUS AND UNBELIEVABLY SIMPLY GOOD. Being the "hip" woman that I am, I added that mozzarella cheese between the layers. Next time, I'll add some fresh mozzarella between and on top, under the sour cream. Because in life you can never have to much wine, or to much cheese!! Enjoy

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Andrea’s Tomato Casserole

5 or 6 tomatoes (or as many as you want) cut into chunks
An onion (red or Vidalia) chopped up (as much as you want)
Cheese crackers
Basil
Salt and pepper
8 oz. tub of sour cream
Croutons
Butter or margarine
About ½ teaspoon of sugar

Put a layer of tomatoes in bottom of casserole dish (1, 1 ½ qt.).
Sprinkle salt, pepper, little bit of sugar and basil over tomatoes.
Sprinkle onions over first layer of tomatoes.
Crunch up cheese crackers and sprinkle over onions.
Layer again 1 or 2 more times. This can be as small or large as you want.
Top layer should be tomatoes and onions (no crackers).
Put in oven (350 degrees) for about 20 minutes. Take out and spread sour cream over top. Put croutons on top of sour cream and dot with butter. Put back in oven turned down to 325 degrees for about 5-10 minutes.

YUM!!

P.S. you can also add mozzarella cheese to your layers for an even yummier…..but it’s great either way.