Ketchup - is it a magical ingredient.....sometimes?

So - I had a lackluster week in the kitchen and wasn't feeling too inspired so I fell back on an old family favorite, Vegetable Beef Soup.  I have always liked it with a good piece of dense bread and butter in hand for dipping and our weather cooled a little bit so soup seemed perfect.  Not to downplay the recipe (and i know I already don't sound excited about it) but something is really off with my taste buds this pregnancy and things I normally found comforting and tasty, don't have the same affect mid-pregnancy.  So that was how it ended up with this soup.  But, my husband said it was good and he loved the healthy portion of beef so there were no complaints from him.  I also found some great organic free range cubed beef at Trader Joe's so I used that for this recipe and it didn't disappoint. 

Birthdays, Blogs and Bacon

What do birthdays, blogs and bacon have in common?   Not much beyond the fact that I love all three and that it is a lame attempt at having a catchy post header.  Let me see if I can string the three together.  Last week I was recovering from a wild weekend/start of the week celebrating this wild man's second birthday.

Yes, that is a Peter Pan collar.  Yes, he was wearing shorts.  It was an unusually warm day.  Neither of the aforementioned articles of clothing will be worn again during the month of February and, if Patrick has anything to do with it, the former will never be seen again.

We had a big time.  Family came to town.  We borrowed a bounce house.  Jude was given a play horse that takes up our entire family room.  Happy Birthday was sung over a police mega phone.  Muffins and smoothies and some cupcakes were consumed by Jude and friends.  Suffice it to say by the time Jude's actual birthday rolled around, I was wiped out.  I had worked it out with Jenny beforehand to switch our Tuesday night swap to Thursday.  I was feeling low on motivation about what to cook for my family and share with hers until I stumbled upon a blog boasting about a baked potato soup.  Please welcome the third part of this post's alliteration...bacon.  

Bacon, chives, sour cream and cheddar cheese debut as toppings for the soup.