Quest

Well, I have been working hard trying to get everything ready for our big trip this summer and so have been uninspired to keep up with my blog...

We are 20 days from departing for Rome and I have been successful at booking a Rome hotel 

Our Room: Spagna Room at Crossing Condotti

--it is not actually a hotel but a five room apartment in a fantastic location with gorgeous accommodations and a common kitchen and a concierge.

I have our cruise booked and paid for and we have chosen our shore excursions. I was also successful getting my Brother Chris and his wife Akiko on the ship with us. This is very exciting as we were told the ship was full!!! So, technically I guess it was full, but they will fit in with Joey and Sammy--should be interesting especially since rumor has it both Chris and Akiko are bathroom hogs and so is Joey... I am smiling thinking about how this is going to pan out!

Anyway, besides planning out our summer (which also includes a wedding in California and a wedding on the Oregon Coast), we have been on a quest to eat healthier and to find healthier proteins to put in our bodies. We have decided that beans and legumes are the answer. So I enlisted the help of our ever so handy Danny to extend the garden by three HUGE garden boxes. This is great since he built them on our steep hillside which was basically unusable before. He is currently building us stairs to get to the garden boxes (pictures to follow when complete).

And we have started collecting beans to plant. They are so cute. I hope the garden boxes are done this week because these little guys really need to get in the ground.

We have already started using our home grown greens (Collards, Kale, etc... ) with Farmer's Market and store bought beans for recipes like 'Collard and Ham Hock Soup with Cannelloni Beans', but we are really excited to get our own beans into our recipes. Oh, and the greens are helping us with the natural vitamins and fiber. YAY!