Rich Folks Pasta

After more than a month of radio silence, I'm back with a great recipe I collected a while back but never had the courage to try.  It was much easier than I expected, and wow - the payoff was awesome.  This is a great pasta recipe for a dinner party, pot luck or just the family with lots of yummy leftovers.

The original title of the recipe as I received it from an old friend was "Sausage Pasta With Tomatoes & Spinach."  Hmm - boring.  I named it more for how it tastes - rich.

Ingredients:
1 lb sweet Italian sausage (casing removed).  You can get your grocery store meat counter to do this, or you can snip the end and slice the side of a sausage and squeeze it out.
1 medium onion
3 large garlic cloves
1 28 oz can iced whole tomatoes
1/4 prepared pesto sauce
10 oz rigatoni or penne
1 c. Romano cheese
8 c. spinach leaves (2/3 of 10 oz package)
6 oz mozzarella cheese - chopped
6 oz mozzarella cheese - shred
1 pint heavy whipping cream

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Cook pasta to "al dente" (not too long or it will be mushy after baking).
In a large saucepan, brown onion, sausage and garlic about 10 minutes.  Add tomatoes with juices.  Simmer until thicker - about 10 minutes.  Stir in pesto and cream and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Oil a 9 x 13" baking dish.  Mixed cooked pasta, raw spinach, chopped mozzarella and 1/3 cup Romano cheese.  Stir in the hot sauce.  Mix and transfer to baking dish.  Sprinkle remaining Romano cheese and shredded mozzarella.  It should look like this:

Cover and bake for 30 minutes.  You will need to let this cool before you can serve it.  You also may want to serve small portions - it is rich.  You'll notice that the combination of the tomatoes, heavy cream and pesto taste a bit like a vodka sauce, but you will be happy you didn't take shortcuts.

Garnish with parsley and enjoy!

cindy

Sochi Olympic Games - the Roundup

A couple of years ago I wrote about the Summer Olympics in London.  I watched a lot of those Olympics, and had a lot to say in three separate posts.  Of course I included McKayla Maroney's classic "not impressed" face.

I have watched some of the Sochi Winter Olympics, but not nearly as much as the London Games.  Why?  First, the games are smaller.  Second, I've just been too busy to watch much.  Third, I don't want to say I'm "not impressed," but I'm not as interested as I was in the Summer Olympics.

Having said all that, there have been some interesting events during these Olympics.  The weather has not been exactly conducive to all of the events, but that is becoming more commonplace during the Winter Olympics.  You would think the International Olympic Committee would be able to find a location where it's winter this February - maybe somewhere like Boston, Buffalo, Chicago, Minneapolis.  Heck, even Atlanta might qualify this year.

While the weather hasn't been impressive, a few of the images are iconic.  She's no McKayla Maroney, but Ashley Wagner does do a good impression:

I think this has been referred to as "disgusted."  Another unforgettable image was that of Bob Costas:

Yuck.  I really do feel for the guy.  I've always liked Bob Costas, so pink eye isn't something I would wish on him.  As most moms will tell you, it's not something they would wish on anybody.  The only thing that could have been worse would be lice, and we really don't want to talk about that.

It has been somewhat of a mediocre performance so far on the part of the U.S. team, but all the events aren't over yet.  Hey, maybe we can pull out a bronze medal in women's figure skating! (I know, but I'm not saying). In all seriousness, congratulations to all of the American athletes.  You have endured years of training, fears of a terrorist attack some predicted was inevitable in Sochi and mixed weather.  Well done!  

cindy

Loving the Lego Movie

I know I'm a little late to the game on this one, but we saw The Lego Movie tonight with our kids (almost 11 and 13).  I thought it might be a little childish for them, but it definitely was not!

I expected a huge number of commercials before the movie and my expectations were more than met in that area.  Instead of trailers there were actual commercials - lots and lots of commercials.  Boy, I thought, this is going to be one dumb movie.  Try not to fall asleep.

I was surprised.  The dialogue was witty and the characters and plot were engaging.  I honestly couldn't see where the film was headed which was unusual because the plot seemed simple enough.  The movie kept me guessing through to the end and I couldn't even go to the bathroom because I didn't want to miss anything.

It was absolutely commercial and I bet Lego sales will shoot up.  Even my kids mentioned they wanted to go home and play Legos and I didn't know they owned any.  My husband mused that the movie should have come out right before Christmas.  Three things I learned:

1.  Everything is awesome.
2.  Even a 2 hour commercial for a toy can be fun and entertaining; and
3.  Lego Land is the home of "Kragle"

Thanks, Lego Movie, for a great family night out on a holiday weekend.

cindy