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Archive for April, 2012
Almost Wordless Wednesday
Posted in Family, Home, Pets, Pets/Animals, Photography, tagged Border Collie, Pets, Siberian Husky, Wordless Wednesday on April 11, 2012|
Baked Ziti
Posted in Cooking, tagged Cooking, Italian sausage, Main, Pasta, Pinterest on April 7, 2012| 8 Comments »
I love pasta! You would think that I have a strong Italian influence in my family, but that is the furthest thing from reality. No Italian blood here; just a great love for Italian food! I found this recipe on Pinterest and it was pinned from a great blog, Creatively Domestic. Here is the link to the original recipe.
There were only 2 little changes I made: I had to use penne pasta because my local grocery stores do not stock a pasta called “ziti” and I used a half pound of ground beef and a half pound of Italian sausage instead of just one pound of one of them. This is a wonderful dish and will be added to my regular meal rotation.
16 oz. dried penne noodles
1/2 lb. ground beef
1/2 lb. Italian sausage
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
6 cups meatless spaghetti sauce, divided
1 cup pasta water, reserved from draining ziti
2 cups (8 oz.) shredded Mozzarella cheese
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Note about the above photo: I cooked the ground beef, sausage, onion and garlic powder the day before to save time. That is what is in the small plastic container.
In a skillet over medium heat, cook the beef, sausage, onion and garlic powder until the meat is completely cooked and the onion is soft.
Slightly undercook ziti, about 8 minutes. Drain, reserving 1 cup of pasta water, set aside. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. In the pot where you cooked the pasta, combine 5 cups of the sauce, reserved pasta water, and the meat mixture. Reduce heat and simmer for 5-10 minutes. Add the cooked pasta back in to the pot and stir to combine.
Spoon 1/2 of ziti mixture into 13x9x2" baking dish sprayed with non-stick spray. Sprinkle with Mozzarella and 1/2 of Parmesan cheese. Top with remaining ziti mixture and remaining 1 cup spaghetti sauce. Sprinkle with remaining Parmesan cheese. Bake 25 – 30 minutes or until heated through.
All you need now is a salad and some garlic bread. Mmmm!! This is also great the next day for leftovers. Just re-heat and serve.
Please join me and other great food bloggers at Miz Helen’s Country Cottage for Full Plate Thursday.
Book Beginnings
Posted in Books, tagged Book Beginnings, Books, Harry Potter and The Goblet Of Fire, J.K. Rowling, Reading on April 6, 2012| 5 Comments »
Book Beginnings has a new host, Rose City Reader, and I am so glad she decided to continue this link party! Don’t forget about A Few More Pages. Just because she isn’t able to host anymore, doesn’t mean she doesn’t deserve some reader love. Other bloggers link up the books they are reading and their feelings toward them. It is always interesting reading.
Today, I am bringing you the first few lines of the fourth Harry Potter book: Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling. I have really enjoyed the first three and this one is just as good. Ms. Rowling’s imagination and creativity are amazing and I wish I had just a drop of her writing ability!
“The villagers of Little Hangleton still called it "the Riddle House," even though it had been many years since the Riddle family had lived there. It stood on a hill overlooking the village, some of its windows boarded, tiles missing from the roof, and ivy spreading unchecked over its face.”
Doesn’t this sound like a sad place to be? It turns out to be a dangerous place to be for one poor man and a temporary safe haven for another very bad man. This book, along with the others in the series that I have read, are awesome. I can easily understand how these books exploded onto the scene and I am glad I decided to give them a try.
Almost Wordless Wednesday
Posted in Fun, Home, Photography, tagged Our Home, Photography, Spring, Wordless Wednesday on April 4, 2012|
Picture Perfect Cooking 