Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Another Thing I Made + A Recipe

This is my Wild Monkey Bracelet.  
There is a birthstone color for each Wild Monkey.
And of course a Wild Monkey Charm.
It too has helped assuage my desire to make bracelets.
I have been looking at how to make bracelets on Pinterest.
I have Googled how to make bracelets.
Lately all I can think about is bracelets.
David gave me a bracelet for Christmas......
And now for the Recipe.
I have served it twice.
The second time I served it at my book club.
And they raved about it.
And they are foodies...one has even published two cookbooks.  Yeah. I was a cooking rock star.

Lasagna Soup
INGREDIENTS
for the soup:
2 tsp. olive oil
1-1/2 lbs. Italian sausage (I added a 1/2 to 1 pound of ground chuck)
3 c. chopped onions
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
2 T. tomato paste
1 28-oz. can fire roasted diced tomatoes
2 bay leaves
6 c. chicken stock  (I used a lot more......twice maybe)
8 oz. mafalda or fusilli pasta (I used bow tie once...then the fusilli second time--both were fine)
1/2 c. finely chopped fresh basil leaves
salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

for the cheesy yum:
8 oz. ricotta
1/2 c. grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 tsp. salt
pinch of freshly ground pepper
2 c. shredded mozzarella cheese

PREPARATION

Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add sausage, breaking up into bite sized pieces, and brown for about 5 minutes. Add onions and cook until softened, about 6 minutes. Add garlic, oregano, and red pepper flakes. Cook for 1 minute. Add tomato paste and stir well to incorporate. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes, or until the tomato paste turns a rusty brown color.

Add diced tomatoes, bay leaves, and chicken stock. Stir to combine. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Add uncooked pasta and cook until al dente. Do not over cook or let soup simmer for a long period of time at this point, as the pasta will get mushy and absorb all the soup broth. You may even want to consider cooking the noodles separately, and then adding some to individual bowls before ladling the soup over them. This would be an especially smart move if you are anticipating any leftovers. Right before serving, stir in the basil and season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

While the pasta is cooking, prepare the cheesy yum. In a small bowl, combine the ricotta, Parmesan, salt, and pepper.

To serve, place a dollop of the cheesy yum in each soup bowl, sprinkle some of the mozzarella on top and ladle the hot soup over the cheese.

Servings:  8

I served this with a nice salad and garlic bread...it was great.

Monday, January 23, 2012

Things I Have Made Lately

Since we went Christmas shopping and I bought a few things at Hobby Lobby, I have not been able to stop thinking about all those beads....I wanted to make a marriage bracelet and a wild monkey bracelet.
So when we had to go to Tupelo Saturday, I threw a fit for David asked David to drop me off at Hobby Lobby.
Honestly I could spend hours in there.......but anyway...I made this.
The amethyst bead is for David, the blue/green is for me (our birthstones) and the one in the middle is for our marriage.  The bracelet is to help me remember to pray for David, for myself and most of all for our marriage.
I'll post a picture of the wild monkey bracelet tomorrow.


Sunday, January 15, 2012

Things I Bought At The Auction #Something

I know you have missed seeing the stuff I have bought so I'm posting pictures.
On of my friends told me to please not junk up my new house. Too late.

Monday, January 2, 2012

Electronic Murder

I have spent the day killing my electronics.
As you all will remember I killed my laptop several months ago.
Today I really really needed to balance my check book and pay bills.  This is done easier if I can print my bank statements from online...but when I tried to print, I killed the printer.  Now it was at least 6 years old, which is probably over a hundred in electronic years. 

I tinkered with it a little bit, but soon gave up. And of course it had the last laugh because I had just bought 2 new ink cartridges........sigh.
While I was trying to resuscitate the printer, I bumped the air card...and yep, I killed it too. And it was a gentle bump and despite an hour on the phone with AT&T tech support I was unable to resuscitate it either.

(Thank you AT&T tech support, yawl are always so kind and patient and helpful)
So I went to the local AT&T  store and bought a new air card that yipppeeee is 4G and is faster that my old one.  I also bought a new Canon printer at Wally World for $63.10 that will scan, print, calculate if the wind is from the east/west/south/north and notify me if the dogs tee tee in either of the back bedrooms.
Oh and did I tell yawl that I killed my iPhone a few months ago and had to wait till the iPhone 4s came out and then get on the waiting list?  Yep, I have a new iPhone 4s, only had to wait 3 weeks before they sent it.....which is like 8 weeks in iPhone withdrawal......
Oh and did I tell yawl that David lost his phone in the woods last Friday night?  And....we found it today?  It was a miracle...but that is another story.
I'm thinking that when I go back to work tomorrow, I better stay away from the defibrillators....hmmm....


Sunday, January 1, 2012

Happy New Year

Happy New Year From The Wild Monkeys!!
And Arfy New Year From The Puppiebabies!!!