Ballet Shoes and Yarn and Hooks and Books.: July 2009

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

I. Love. This. Movie.

Sunday, July 26, 2009

QUICK and EASY Spicy Shrimp, Sausage and Tomato Pasta

So I didn't get started on any projects yesterday. We had a dinner party instead! It was kind of impromptu. But I think the pasta dish and ice cream I made turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself. The pasta was an exercise in what-do -I-have-on-hand-that-I-can-serve-company. The ice cream came about because it was hot and I thought homemade ice cream would be a good way to cool off.

The pasta was SOOO easy. And easily adapted or copied. AND FAST!!! Love those kind of meals.

Ingredients:
5 Italian Hot Sausages (You can use mild or sweet if you like... but the extra kick was nice.)
1 stick butter
8ish cloves minced garlic or ~ 1/2 cup
1 lbish de-shelled and de-veined shrimp
1 1/2ish cups rough chopped tomatoes
1/2ish cup minced parsley (or carrot tops like I used... they taste the same!)
1/2 cup shredded or ribboned Parmesan cheese
enough pasta for 6 people... I used a package and a half (~ 27 oz) of spaghetti
1 cupish reserved pasta water

As you can tell from my ingredients list I'm a "little bit of this and a little bit of that chief"... I measure NOTHING! Except of course when I'm baking. Measuring is a given when baking. No choice really. But! Feel free to adapt this recipe in anyway you like. That's what recipes are for in my opinion. Adaption.

Boil a large pan of water, salt it WELL and drop your pasta. Half the sausages, remove their casing and cut into 1/4-1/2 inch pieces. Put in a hot pan with the butter. Cook until almost done. Add the garlic, shrimp and tomatoes. Cook until the shrimp are almost done then add the drained pasta and most of the parsley (or carrot tops! :) ) Mix the pasta in with the "sauce" and add the reserved pasta water to loosen the sauce and coat all the pasta.

Transfer to your serving dish and top with the remainder parsley and Parmesan. To make the ribbons: use your potato peeler and "peel" off ribbons of the parm!

That's it! You're done!

This dish really only takes as long as the pasta takes to cook. So 15 minutes or less! Woohoo! And it's so pretty done- it really is company worthy.
Enjoy!

O!! p.s.: My mod podged picture frame from the other day? It unbubbled it's self as it dried. YAY!

Friday, July 24, 2009

Modge Podge Spring Board?

So I finally DID something today! Yay me! I'm a substitute teacher and as such I have the summer off. But I've hardly done a thing. Boo me. I can't say that I've done nothing, I've been reading quite a bit. (My current fav is The Year of Living Biblically by AJ Jacobs- I got it for my birthday a two days ago and I'm half way done. I'd be done if I hadn't been on line so much!) I also made a fun baby blanket for one of my friend's soon to be born son. But I digress... Now that we have the internet again, I have been wasting my time online. Again, BOO me!
I have gotten SOOO much inspiration from a bunch of different crafty blogs though. I've been so engrossed in them that, until today, I've done nothing about it. Finally, I decided to get up, get out my Mod Podge stuff and get to work on a picture frame project that I've had waiting for me for months.
Unfortunately, it didn't turn out quite the way I had hoped. It bubbled a little. I'll live, but when things aren't perfect it bugs me. Mod Podge is harder to fix then, say, crochet. With crochet if something isn't up to my specifications I can rip it out and start over from the mistake. Glue doesn't let you 'rip it out'. Because it rips. And then it's ruined. So BOO for not putting enough glue down in the first place. If I'd done that it wouldn't have bubbled when I put the 'Podge on the top.
O-well. I guess progress is progress. I've seen a couple sewing projects that I'm thinking about tackling... Hopefully I can use today as a spring board of motivation for tomorrow.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Pho, Bubble Tea, Godiva, Borders, Choir and Pizza. In that order.

Today was my birthday. I say today because I haven't gone to sleep yet. I say was because it's one in the morning and is therefore technically no longer my birthday. It was a fabulous day. Full of favorite things. We (meaning my husband and I) had pho from my favorite pho place in Utah. They also have some FABULOUS bubble tea there. I highly recommend it. (Kim Long in Layton.) Then we went to Godiva and I got a 32 (!) box!!!!! We then enjoyed the pleasant atmosphere of Borders where I got 2 books. The Geography of Bliss and another one about a guy who lived the bible literally for a year... I forget the name so I will have to add it later. We then booked it back to town so that I would be on time for choir. I sang and a friend and I had fun doing what the director told us not to do... But immediately after singing it very wrong he told us that that was right!? So we had a good laugh. Then, said friend joined the hubster and I for pizza at The Pie. All in all, a day of favorites! I'm tired.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009