I'm cooking for the staff meal at Kevin's school. I'm on the committee that provides a meal once a month for when they have a big staff meeting. The theme this month is Italian, and my sister the Sausage Queen
(she has an Italian sausage business) gave me a recipe for pasta fazul. It smells scrumdiliumptious!
Just in case you wanna make some one day...
PASTA FAZUL
1 package Italian sausage
4-6 TBS. Olive Oil
4 cloves minced garlic
1 chopped onion
2 sliced/chopped carrots
1/4 cup chopped parsley
2 tsp. dried basil
1 tsp. dried oregano
20 oz can diced tomatoes
2-16oz cans navy beans
1 lb. penne pasta
1/4 c grated parmesan cheese
salt/pepper to taste
In a skillet, steam and brown the sausage - add olive oil if needed. Then cut links into 4 long strips and then into small pieces. While the sausage is cooking, in a large skillet heat 2 tbs. olive oil, then add onion, carrot, garlic, parsley, basil, oregano and sauté until onions are tender. Stir in tomatoes plus 1/2 can juices. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Reduce heat to med-low. Cover, stirring frequently for 10 minutes or until carrots are tender. Stir in navy beans, cover and simmer 20 minutes. Add sausage, stir, cover and simmer on low or turn off. Cook pasta, drain and toss with 2 tbs. olive oil and parmesan cheese. Add pasta to sausage mixture. If you want a stew, leave out the pasta and serve with crusty bread.
So I kinda promised a more meaty entry, didn't I. I'll get to that, but in short, Mr. Spectacular (who is now sometimes called Mr. Wowtacular) is still spectacular. The kiddos are great. Steph and her crew are still here and all is well at Beejland. And, as a special bonus to our neighbors...after 2 and 3/4 years...we now have window coverings!
Lookie! They open and close! Hooray for plantation shutters! I heart them. They're inspiring me to do more with the inside of the house. Like put stuff on the walls. And paint. Yikes. I'm becoming "homey."
One thing I really want to put in the living room is a picture of Pete*.
This one:
It's a gigantic poster from AllPosters.com. 48 inches by 72 inches of awesomeness. I'm wrestling with justifying such a purchase. Help me justify, would you?
What will soon go on the wall is a particularly wonderful Christmas gift from Mr. Spectacular. He searched far and wide for many hours and found six fantastic photographs of the city of Prien am Chiemsee, where I went to school in Germany. He had them enlarged and framed. He said wanted to give me something that, when I looked at it, made me smile and recall happy memories.
I will pause for a moment of swoon.
***************************
Okay, on to a bit of updating...
I have two fun pics of the kids at Christmas. One is Courtney opening her gift:
A close-up of the box:
She was afraid to open the box. See the look on her face? HA! She thought it was a) a broken iPod, b) an iPod made of chocolate, c) an iPod that was supposed to look like it was made of poop, or d) some unknown joke thing. The beauty of the joke was the contents....it was the purple iPod Nano she'd been wanting forever. Got her good and freaked out, and then thrilled and excited. Hee!
The other is of Kev with some of his gifts: the hat and shirt from his big sister and the bike from Santa:
Rock and rolllllll!
The pasta fazul is finished and I'm pooped, so I'm off to bed.
Thanks for sticking around, You People. :-)
*If you looked at the picture and said, "Pete who?" then please come closer to your monitor so's I can flick you on the forehead. With great force.
So I kinda promised a more meaty entry, didn't I. I'll get to that, but in short, Mr. Spectacular (who is now sometimes called Mr. Wowtacular) is still spectacular. The kiddos are great. Steph and her crew are still here and all is well at Beejland. And, as a special bonus to our neighbors...after 2 and 3/4 years...we now have window coverings!
Lookie! They open and close! Hooray for plantation shutters! I heart them. They're inspiring me to do more with the inside of the house. Like put stuff on the walls. And paint. Yikes. I'm becoming "homey."
One thing I really want to put in the living room is a picture of Pete*.
This one:
It's a gigantic poster from AllPosters.com. 48 inches by 72 inches of awesomeness. I'm wrestling with justifying such a purchase. Help me justify, would you?
What will soon go on the wall is a particularly wonderful Christmas gift from Mr. Spectacular. He searched far and wide for many hours and found six fantastic photographs of the city of Prien am Chiemsee, where I went to school in Germany. He had them enlarged and framed. He said wanted to give me something that, when I looked at it, made me smile and recall happy memories.
I will pause for a moment of swoon.
***************************
Okay, on to a bit of updating...
I have two fun pics of the kids at Christmas. One is Courtney opening her gift:
A close-up of the box:
She was afraid to open the box. See the look on her face? HA! She thought it was a) a broken iPod, b) an iPod made of chocolate, c) an iPod that was supposed to look like it was made of poop, or d) some unknown joke thing. The beauty of the joke was the contents....it was the purple iPod Nano she'd been wanting forever. Got her good and freaked out, and then thrilled and excited. Hee!
The other is of Kev with some of his gifts: the hat and shirt from his big sister and the bike from Santa:
Rock and rolllllll!
The pasta fazul is finished and I'm pooped, so I'm off to bed.
Thanks for sticking around, You People. :-)
*If you looked at the picture and said, "Pete who?" then please come closer to your monitor so's I can flick you on the forehead. With great force.
