Easy Pasta & Turkey Sausage Dinner

I needed a quick dinner tonight.  Everyone was starving.  Everyone was tired.  We had dance to get to.  So I went to my go to recipes and made something quick, light and something to satisfy everyone's appetite.

The ingredients are few but the taste is fantastic.  You will need 3 bell peppers, an onion and some garlic.  I usually use about 2 to 3 cloves.

A 12 oz. box of tri-color pasta.

Hot Italian turkey sausage.

Boil the noodles.

Remove casings from the sausage and put in a pan.  Brown the meat.  (This is a pretty unappetizing picture!)

While sausage is browning, add the chopped onion.

When the sausage is brown, cut the peppers into bite size pieces and add to the sausage and onion mixture.

Strain the noodles and put them back in the pot.

Stir in the sausage mixture with the noodles.

I serve this with parmesan cheese on the side.

Here's how I like to eat it!

You can add just about anything to this dish - fresh spinach, olives, artichokes......whatever you have on hand.

"Some of the most important conversations I've ever had occurred at my family's dinner table."  -Bob Ehrlich

First Attempt at Making Krumkake

Tonight I thought it would be fun to try to make something my mom always made at Christmas time.  My daughter was excited to help......until we set off the fire alarm.  I called my mom in the midst of the alarm going off, laughing as I asked if she could give me some advice about how to make the perfect krumkake. 

After getting some motherly words of wisdom, I did a "do-over" and actually was successful!  Here's the recipe and how we made them - without setting off the fire alarm!

Beat 3 eggs

Add:   1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup melted butter

1/2 cup flour

1 teaspoon lemon extract

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

Mix well and put into a pourable container.

Heat the krumkake iron on the stove top.  Once hot, open and pour  on some of the batter.  When you shut the iron, some of the batter will come out the sides.  Use a knife to scrap off excess.

Heat both sides of the iron with the batter inside.

Once the batter starts to turn brown, use a knife or spatula to remove the "pancake" from the iron.  Lay it on a flat surface and roll it onto the krumkake tube.  Be careful doing this step - the iron and "pancake" will be very hot!!!!

Place the krumkake on a flat surface to cool. 

Store in an airtight container.

Not bad for my first attempt!

"Baking cookies is comforting, and cookies are the sweetest little bit of comfort food.  They are very bite-sized and personal."  -Sandra Lee

New Family Favorite Cookie

My daughter and I spent  this very snowy day (we got 10+ inches of snow) baking Christmas cookies.  We made a new kind today and it has instantly turned into a family favorite.  They are called "Soft Maple Sugar Cookies" and we used the recipe from my Better Homes and Garden cookbook called Christmas Cooking from the Heart.  We thought we'd share how we made them.

Mix 1/2 cup of softened butter with 1/2 cup of shortening.

 

Then add 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

  1 teaspoon baking soda

 1 teaspoon cream of tartar

 1/8 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

 3 egg yolks

1/4 cup real maple syrup

and 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour

Mix well and then roll into 1 inch size balls.  Place them on an ungreased cookie sheet about 2 inches apart.

Bake in a 300 degree oven for 12 to 14 minutes.  Remove and cool on wire racks.

Move the cookies to parchment paper and drizzle with a maple glaze (powdered sugar, whipping cream or milk, butter - mix enough together to get a drizzle consistency).

Here there are!

"Don't expect too much from yourself.  What I like to do when I have a day off is make various cookie doughs and freeze them.  Then I always have that on hand if I need it."  -Giada De Laurentiis

A Bad Day with Rays of Sunshine

I thought today might be the first day that I didn't blog.  I even told my mom that I just didn't think I had it in me today.  She said that I should at least write a little blurb and say that sometimes life just happens and everyone has bad days.  But as I was driving away from the Emergency Room with my mended son, I started to reflect on the positives that happened today.  That's what this blog is about......finding the good in EVERY day, even days that at first glance don't look like they'd have any ray of sunshine in them.

I had been shopping at a local mall when I got a call from my husband telling me that the ski patrol at Hyland Ski & Snowboard called to say that our son had broken his wrist and we needed to bring him to the doctor.  My stomach sank.  My son just bought all new gear and has been so excited about hitting the terrain park.  I could just picture his face - the ultimate picture of sadness.  

I drove the 40 minutes to get my son alternating between tears and a quiet resolve that it would all be fine.  When I got to the park, the security guard pointed me to the parking spot labeled "Parking for Patient Pick Up Only".  The security guard was fabulous.  She knew I was worried but she reassured me that he had been well taken care of and she could personally attest to that since she had visited with for almost an hour while waiting for me. 

When I found my son, he wasn't alone.  Besides being one of many "patients", he was sitting with one of his friends.  That friend missed out on some great snowboarding time to sit with my son so he didn't have to be there all alone.  What a super friend!

On the way to urgent care, my son told me how great the ski patrol was.  How they joked with him to keep him calm and did a fantastic job of immobilizing his wrist.  I felt an overwhelming sense of thankfulness for those strangers who took such wonderful care of my child.

The receptionist, nurse, doctor and x-ray technician at urgent care were all gentle with my son's wrist and so kind to the both of us.  The doctor brought us into a room to show us the x-rays so we could better understand what was wrong.  He spoke directly to my son and treated him with such respect.  I felt relieved that my son was in such good hands even though those were hands that couldn't help us.  His break was too severe for urgent care so they sent us on to the emergency room.

The emergency room was no exception.  The nurses and doctors were awesome.  They made my son comfortable - made sure the pain was tolerable.  They got him to smile and they made me laugh.  Even though the news wasn't great, we left feeling glad that there were so many people who came into our lives today who blessed us with their kindness, their care, their concern their friendliness. 

Even my daughter brought a little sunshine.  She was so worried about her big brother.  This is what he saw the minute he walked in the door.

After dropping my son off at home I had to run to Target to get his prescription for pain medication.  I knew that the pharmacy would be closing really soon but I was hoping I could at least drop off the prescription and pick it up in the morning.  When I got there, they were closing up so I asked the clerk if I could still just drop off the prescription.  The pharmacist was there too and overheard our conversation.  She asked to see the prescription.  I told her I wasn't expecting her to fill the prescription tonight but could she point me to an over the counter medication that would get us through the night.  She laughed and said that of course she would fill his prescription....he needed to be comfortable overnight and she would definitely take the time to fill the prescription.  I started to cry.  How could so many people who don't know us, give us the care and concern of people who've known us forever?

So you see.......even though I'm sitting here emotionally and physically exhausted from a not so joyful day, there were many rays of sunshine that brightened our cloudy day!

"Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight.  Extend to them all the care, kindness and understanding you can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward.  Your life will never be the same again."  -Og Mandino

My Favorite Place to spend a Sunday afternoon! (even with my children)

One of my most favorite places to visit in the Minneapolis area is the MIA: Minneapolis Institute of Arts.  It's free to visit - unless you want to see the Target Gallery Exhibits.  The current exhibit in that gallery is China's Terracotta Warriors:  The First Emperor's Legacy.  In this exhibit, you will learn about the first emperor of China, Qin Shihaung and the sculpted warriors who protected him in the afterlife.

Here are two examples of those warriors.  The first one is an archer and the second is a light infantryman  (All pictures are courtesy of the MIA website.)

Warriors needed chariots as well.  Here is a picture of one of those horses who pulled a chariot.

The prices for the Target Gallery can be a little spendy but I have found that it is well worth it!  The prices are as follows:  Adults - $18 (weekdays), $20 (weekends); Seniors 62 & up / Students 13-17 -  $16 (weekdays), $18 (weekends); College students with ID - $9 (weekdays), $10 (weekends); Children - $14 (weekdays), $16 (weekends).

You can spend a wonderful day at the museum without spending a thing.  Parking is free on the street and in the parking garage next door.  Admission to the museum itself is free.  In the summer, when my children were little, we visited almost every other week.  The museum is so large and always changing that there is always something new to see.

The MIA has many special events.  One of my favorites is Family Day.  There will be one this Sunday, December 9th from 11am to 5pm.  They will be having a jewelry making workshop, a photo booth, metal tooling, stories, harp music and a host of other activities.  AND it's all FREE.  Check out the MIA website for more details on this special event and on others to come.  www.artsmia.org

"A museum has to renew its collection to be alive, but that does not mean we give up on important old works."  -David Rockefeller

Great Jewelry

Anyone who knows me well, knows that I really like to wear jewelry.  I hardly ever leave the house without earrings, even when I'm going the gym.  The more unique the jewelry, the more I like it and it's even more special if it's made by someone I know.  My favorite jewelry designer happens to be Barb Ash who lives in my hometown of Ortonville, MN.  She sells her jewelry on Etsy under the name Intuitive Glass by Barbara.

Here are a few of the pieces of her jewelry I possess (sorry the picture aren't that great - my photographer went to bed before being able to help me out).

This is a shawl pin.

These are two pairs of earrings.

These are my earring pendant sets.  I took close ups of the pendants to some detail.

I've loved every piece I've gotten from her and hope to add many more of her pieces to my collection.  Check out her etsy site and I'm sure you'll be hooked too! 

"Jewelry should not upstage you.  I pick one hot point on my body that I'm going to highlight.  Let one area do the singing - you don't want to hear three songs at once."  -Padma Lakshmi