Sunshine and Swings and All Kinds of Beautiful Things

Please Let Me Out...

Excuse me, but I would like out.

Perhaps you do not see me.

...please?...

Valentine's Day Sweets

Bells of Ireland and Miniature Roses from the Farmer's Market

Happy Valentine's Day Weekend everyone! Love, us!

Can I Get An Amen!

I don't know where in the world I've been, but I have just recently discovered the miraculous power of the crock pot! Yesterday morning, I put some seasoned ribs and onion slices in the crock pot, added some BBQ sauce about 8 hours later, let 'em cook for another hour, and there was dinner. I made these sweet potato fries to go with them. Just slice, rub a little olive oil on, sprinkle with cajun seasoning and coarse salt, and bake in the oven at 350° for about 30-40 minutes depending on desired level of done-ness.

Yum!

Just- yum!

The Pasta Theme Continues...

There is becoming a pattern in my posts. This pasta is Spinach Basil Garlic and the recipe is for Mama DeCio's Marinara. I added some ground beef to the mixture for a little added protein. The rest is a combo of crushed tomatoes, garlic, fresh basil, onions, and a tablespoon of sugar. A tasty twist on good old spaghetti.

More Pasta

On Friday, my parents came over for dinner - a sort of impromptu get together after a little shopping with my mom, since my dad was already on this side of town for work. I decided to use another one of our flavored pastas and some ingredients I had gathered for this fish recipe. The pasta is a handmade chili cilantro linguini. The recipe was supposed to be for Ceviche, which I had no clue involved soaking the fish in lime juice for over 4 hours rather than cooking it, and since our dinner plans were a bit last minute, I came up with my own recipe. I also wasn't too keen on the idea of eating cold fish, so grilling it in a pan with a little olive oil seemed much better. I sauteed the veggies first in olive oil and lime juice with a generous portion of fresh cilantro. It was a mixture of carrots, yellow bell peppers, onions, garlic, and red chilies. Once the veggies were tender, I added the halibut and cooked a little longer then served it all on top of the chili cilantro pasta with a few cilantro sprigs. Turned out pretty yummy!

Flavor of the Night

We finally went to the Scottsdale Farmers' Market this Saturday for the first time, and I think I'm going to have to go back every Saturday now to do my grocery shopping. We came home with lots of yummy fresh food. One purchase included a selection of DeCio handmade pastas. They had over a dozen or so different flavors, and we bought four of them. On their website, they have a pretty long list of recipes for all the different varieties of pasta they carry. For dinner tonight, we used the Szechuan Orange Spice linguini and combined it with the recipe for Lemon Chicken (although I substituted oranges for the lemons). It's a yummy blend of fresh orange juice, minced fresh red chilies, honey and garlic, then topped with fresh parsley and roasted oranges. Delish!