Wednesday, March 23, 2011

How to make devine Ziti for Scrapping Goddesses

Saturday our office held our first ever March of Dimes scrapbooking crop. It wasn't too big, but I think if we keep it up we could do much more next year!! I was stupid and took NO pictures but I did take pictures the night before of the Ziti I prepared for dinner. Everyone has always like my ziti so I thought I would share the recipe here!!


I start with my favorite pasta. I really like Barilla. Its available in most chains. I use 1 and a half boxes for a 9x13 pan.


Start a pot of water to boil. When it reaches its boiling point salt it well. I do mean well. Pasta is made for salting. Add noodles to the water.
Chop one full onion to the size of your choice. I cut it as small as my runny eyes will allow. Usually until I can't see any more.


Brown the onions with a pound of Italian Sausage. I do NOT use hamburger. You can if you want, or even do half and half, but to me it just does not taste right. To the meat and onions I added some salt and pepper. At this time you could also add a bit of red pepper flakes if you wish. It just depends on if you like a little more heat or not. It also depends on what kind of sausage you have.

Please do NOT forget about your noodles boiling!! Set your timer for 5 minutes. You do not want them fully cooked!!! After the 5 minutes drain your noodles and set aside.
Open two jars of your favorite marinara sauce. Again I am a Barilla fan. Use a few spoon fulls of the sauce from the jar to cover the bottom of your pan lightly. (9x13) This is basically to keep the noodles moist and from sticking to the bottom.
Combine your two jars of sauce and your meat mixture together.
Start layering your dish. I start with about half the noodles then I add half the sauce, then I add sliced provolone cheese and Parmesan. Then on top of that or right before if you wish I squirt some ranch dressing on it. Maybe a 1/2 a cup or so I just eyeball it. You are supposed to use sour cream but the last time I made this I didn't have sour cream and substituted the ranch. I liked it sooo much more that I use it all the time now. Feel free to use the sour cream if you with though.
Start your next layer the same way. Noodles, sauce, cheese and ranch. On the very top layer I just poor on the parm. nice and crunchy on the top.
I do not have a picture cooked because it was actually cooked the next day so I completely forgot to snap a pic!! You can make this dish ahead and the flavors will marry and just be sooo yummy with the noodles that soak up all the sauce and flavor. I usually put it in the oven at 350 for about 45 minutes. If you have refrigerated it at all you will more than likely need an hour. Its done when cheese is slightly brown and edges are bubbly.
Serve with green salad and garlic bread!!

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Birthday Lunch

My office partner and good friend LaRee celebrated her 29th birthday (ahem...giggle) last Friday. We always take each other to lunch for our birthdays and this year she picked Johnny Carino's. She always picks Johnny Carino's which is just fine with the rest of us because it's also our favorite. Darla met us there and surprised LaRee with her very own Tiara!! It's just not a birthday with out a Tiara right? Both LaRee and I had the Spicy Chicken Romano and Darla had Chicken milan, or chicken marsala....I think. Then for dessert we ordered the wonderful chocolate cake that we LOVE and Darla had even thought to order it ahead WITH candles!!!







Happy 29th Birthday again LaRee!!!

Friday, March 18, 2011

Lovin Cakes

We are not huge Valentine's day people. I mean we do cards and say I love you and may do a fun treat but that's about it.


Bug decided his contribution this year would be cupcakes!! And were they cute!





I just got him frosting in a tube to decorate and he went to TOWN!!!!



Thank you Bug for making it an EXTRA special Valentine's Day!

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Challenges for the retreat

Our retreat is coming up quickly and we have some really wonderful challenges this time around. Now that I am finally in my house and have my scrap stuff unpacked I really want to get them done! I am hoping that I can! Time is an issue so I only have had a chance to get two done so here they are!!


This Is the first Challenge for the retreat. We were supposed to scrap a page about our selves. That's tough for me so I actually put all the journaling in a pocket.


The next challenge was to do a page about something you are passionate about. I chose photograhy.




I am hoping I can get a few more of the challenges done this weekend! I can always hope right?

Friday, March 11, 2011

It's like they are from another planet

That's what my youngest son told me. He was talking about his brother and his friends. Yesterday they had a half day of school and I agreed to take Chris and two of his buddies from school to grab pizza then back to our house for video games. Funny thing is they only played their own handheld games. A new "Pokemon" game was just released and apparently for these three boys its the "bomb". They can trade players, communicate between games and that is ALL they want to do. While driving them to and from the house they were throwing out comments like:



"give me back my marchamp!"



or



"have you seen my adsfdasfi its faster than a cow streaking across a field?"



I seriously had to bite my lip to keep from laughing. At one point one of the boys in the back seat said "how nerdy are we right now?" I guess acceptance is the first sign of knowing there is a problem. Now to get these boys to some group therapy.