Penne Rustica

This is the recipe for my gramps birthday dinner. Its kinda time consuming but real tasty. You can also just buy it at Macaroni Grill but thats not quite as fun yall!!!

Have fun and tell me if you like it!!

Part 1

• 2 teaspoons butter
• 2 teaspoons chopped garlic
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon dill
• 1 teaspoon chopped rosemary
• 1 cup marsala wine
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 8 cups heavy cream

Part 2 

1 ounce pancetta or 1 ounce bacon

18 shrimp, peeled and deveined

12 ounces grilled chicken breasts, sliced

16 -24 ounces penne pasta, cooked

3 teaspoons chopped pimiento

6 ounces butter

1 teaspoon chopped shallot

1 pinch salt and pepper

1 cup parmesan cheese

1/2 teaspoon paprika

6 sprigs fresh rosemary

For Sauce: 

Saute butter, garlic, and rosemary until garlic begins to brown.

Add Marsala wine and reduce by one-third.

Add remaining ingredients, reduce by half of the original volume.

Set aside.

For Penne Rustica: Saute pancetta until it begins to brown.

Add butter, shallots, and shrimp.

Cook until shrimp are evenly pink but still translucent.

Add chicken, salt, pepper, and mix thoroughly.

Add gratinata sauce and 1/2 cup parmesan cheese.

Simmer until sauce thickens.

In a large bowl, combine shrimp& chicken mixture with the cooked pasta.

Pour into a large casserole dish or roaster.

Top with remaining cheese, pimientos and sprinkle with paprika.

Bake at 475 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes.

 Remove and garnish with fresh rosemary sprig.

Gramps

We had a little party for my gramps today. We had Penne Rustica and Cheesecake. I will be posting recipes tomorrow. I sure do love my granparents!!!

beh

 I have been too busy the last few days with some adventures to get on here so I had scheduled for 4 days worth of posts...just realized that obviously they are not showing up.

AWESOME BLOGGER!! THANKS!!!

Oh well I will try again!!

Pizza Party

I cooked a coupla pizzas yesterday. I made a gross meat one for the boys and an amazing veggie one for me and my mom. This one had squash, olives, fresh mozzarella, peppers and artichoke hearts. It may have been the best pizza I have made yet. I have never thought to put artichokes on one before but it was delicious!! I saw a recipe for cauliflower crust on Megs blog so I think next I will try that.

 

We started eating before I remembered to take a picture of the finished product. WHOOPS!!!

Another Sew September

This is my most recent little project. Its finished now and ready to ship off to my great aunt Janet in Pennsylvania.
It took entirely too long to finish this but I really enjoyed it. I may start trying to do bigger project now that I am so comfortable with these baby ones.
 

In other news my midget dog, Loki, is standing beside me sleeping...yes standing up with her eyes shut dead asleep and softly whining. Shes such a weirdo.

Sponsorships

For the month of September I sponsored Susannahs little bloggity blog. Today she wrote a post on all of her sponsors so go look at it?! I am horrid at writing about myself so my little about me was silly.

Yesterday night was really fun. I actually got to go out on a Friday night!! Me and my  friend Jon hung out and showed a new friend Brandon around town. I love my city so it's always rad to get to teach people about Nashville. We went around to all the cool historic places and hangout spots downtown like: Love Circle, Centennial Park and Hillsborough Village. They eventually got hungry so we ended the night eating at Athens which is an all night Greek restaurant here in town.
I usually am pretty horribly awkward but I think we all vibed pretty well and had our funny pants on which is always good. Its good to meet new friends.

Also about the whole job dealy, they offered me a lesser job with the Arch Expert department. Aka only like 23 hours and minimum wage AND I wont be doing facials, therefore I will not be accepting it and will continue looking for better opportunities.

Big 100

I just realized that I passed my 100th post by 3 posts. I cant believe it snuck up on me like that. Pretty nifty.

I will have been blogging very very inconsistently for a year in November so I guess 100 is pretty low number.

I dont have an overly exciting life so maybe its a good thing.

I went in for my second interview at Ulta today. I got to the store 15 minutes early and over 30 minutes after it was supposed to start they called me wondering where I was. I told them I had been there the whole time and had informed two employees who I was meeting with but I dont think they believed me and were still pretty pissed off. Safe to say I am feeling pretty confident that I didnt get the job but also at peace about it. I am going to be patient this time and find the job that is right for me instead of just picking at straws. I dont really want to deal with the whole job search thing again anytime soon so this time it needs to be right.

Afterwards I went to meet a lady friend at Icon tattoo so she could look at my poor over stretched ears. I messed them up a month ago and been slowly healing them back. We had lunch and I talked to one of the artists about finishing up my thigh piece as soon as I get a job. Pretty stoked on that. Its so rare for me to find people I enjoy being around so Im hoping this evolves into a real friendship.

Thats pretty much all the exciting things I did today, now I am watching Sex and the City like I do every few days and cuddling with my puppeh.

Can I has?

Ive been getting caught up on Califonication and even though hes rather scummy I find him oh so attractive...

That is all...

HELP

I am redecorating my room, I have also been procrastinating on this for a long time. Big surprise! As I said before I love animal print and had been searching for zebra and/or cheetah sheets for what felt like forever. I went to Kohls one day and they just happened to have 100$ dream sheets for 15$ so of course I snatched those up. Then magically I went to Ross a few days after that and they not only had cheetah sheets but also a freaking comforter!!! Do yall think I am tacky or what?! Anyways my room currently is a grey color with these crazy curtains I have had since highschool and I figured with my new bedspread I needed a change. So here is where yall come in...I want to make my new wall color one of these three and the curtains will be one of the swatches that you see. Now I am horrible at being girly and dont have a clue about interior design so can yall maybe please give me your opinions on this?

9/11/11

Today was a pretty busy day. I worked on a few sewing projects, I am almost done with one of them. I keep forgetting about posting the shirt I made. Procrastinating at its finest.
Me and my mom went shopping for my grampas birthday, hes going to be 84 on the 14th. I can not imagine being that...young haha. Hes visiting my uncle in Ft Worth this week so we are sending him a cake and his presents. We got him shirts...we always get him clothes and he always complains so I am sure he will this year as well.
The rest of the day Ive spent working on blog stuff, cleaning and cooking. I'm ready to sit down and watch some movies with my little pup pup.

Can you guys believe that ten years ago today the towers fell in New York?! I remember I was home schooled that year, I was 11, we all were sitting in my parents room watching something on TV when all the channels started showing what was going on. We all were dumbfounded at what we were seeing. I still can't believe what happened. I think it hit home harder today then it did back then. I was looking at photos of the devastation its completely unreal. It breaks my heart to see so many people making jokes about it online. I mean this was a huge horrible event...obviously not a joking matter.
Do yall remember where yall were ten years ago?

Le sigh

The last two days have been a whirlwind of doctors visits, doggy cuddles, trips to the store, stress, and not enough bike rides. I am exhausted. Im taking a bloggy break and doing a lame post today.
Sorry guys.

Outfit Post: Job Interview

OK OK, I am going for it here is an outfit photo...though can I even call a self took picture that? As soon as I saw this dress I fell in love with it. I am a huge huge animal print fanatic so of course this caught my eye. It makes me look slim and is perfect for work or in this case an interview. I just threw on a black sweater and some black flats and went to town. I got this as Kohls on sale for like 27$, so I think it was a pretty good deal! I will hear back on Friday how my interview went so wish me luck!!

job search again

Im running a little behind on posts today. I had the last week scheduled out so I could be free to job search without having to worry about this business.  I didn't even sew yesterday which felt kinda weird. I have been filling out applications and sending out resumes like a mad women once again. I have gotten a few calls back so I guess now it is just a waiting game. I've never been good at interviews, I get really quiet and awkward. It is easier now though since I have actually aesthetics experience and I know for the most part what I am talking about.
Jess and I have been hanging out the past two days after not seeing each other for quite a while. It was pretty nice times. We played card games, ate foods and watched movies most of the time. It was rad to just take time to chill out and be still. I am missing the summer heat already. Its been raining for the better part of the week so we had to stay inside the whole time.
I had a job interview today so we had to wake up early to get me home in time to get ready. I prolly should knock on wood for even mentioning that to yall. It seems like when I just don't say anything about what I am currently hanging on then it is more likely to happen. Does that happen to anyone else??
I was going to take some pictures of the dress I wore to my interview. It is definitely leopard print and i am not ashamed!! It is my new favorite dress no doubt. I didn't like any of the pictures. I must build confidence in that area first I reckon.
Oh well, next day!

September Sewing!

I finished this little dude the day before yesterday, this might be my favorite so far. I have about 2 more left to do then I dont know what project I will get my hands on.

I quit my job last Thursday because I was basically spending more driving all the way out there then I was making a week. Its kinda sad I was really hoping this one would work out. Next week its back to the grind trying to find something else. One day I will own my own thing and this will all be just a memory.

Daily Happy pt 4

Are yall sick of seeing all these projects yet? I have another one that I finished last night while I was watching The Devil Wears Prada. It was super simple and took about an hour to do. I think I am gonna start giving these away to random people. Im doing one that I should be finished with by tomorrow that is a cross stitch on a card that came with a fancy envelope to send. Im giving that one to my great aunt, we are pretty good pen pals.

I went to see The Help today after reading it the last few days. I really liked the book which is weird for me because I rarely like things like that but I was pleasantly surprised. The movie was pretty far as they usually are from the original but it still flowed along nicely. I would definitely recommend seeing this movie!

One Sketch A Day

I dont know if you guys are big into reality tv or not (I may be a smidge obsessed with a few) but I am really into LA Ink this season. I havent watched the show in a really long time but this season with her breakup right before the show aired I figured Id tune in for the drama. I know that is horrible but yall cant say you dont do the same at least sometimes. Since watching the show though I have found a new interest in Kat as a person and started following her on Twitter as well as watching the show every Thursday with my mom. Its still funny to me that my mom likes that show but I am into it. I like doing things with her.
Back to the subject...Kat has been doing this project called A Sketch A Day where you know, you obviously try to draw something once a day...I went to Books A Million on Wednesday and got one of the little journals to start my own. You could say I am pretty excited about it. I love to draw even though Im not overly talented at it but I never make time to do it. I dont really know if I will be showing any of what I draw. I am pretty overly scared about it, especially when its just sketches.
Hopefully this little dude will help fix that.

Crafy Time

Since I have been in such a crafty mood lately I decided to try to dress up my favorite pair of shorts. They are a bit boring so I bought some pyramid studs from this website last week and waited impatiently for them to come in. I had seen a random picture of a girl who customized her pants so I tried to follow her lead. Its a bit crooked but I think it came out pretty good for a first time studder. I also put a little bit on the back, Im not sure if I like that part yet actually. 

P.S. it looks like I actually have a bootay in that picture...pretty nice haha.

Sew September

For those of yall that dont know it this lady is having a challenge for the month of September to sew a little bit everyday for the entire month. Now I am new to the whole sewing thing and I think this will be really fun and a good way to get used to my machine. (read: my moms machine)
I have a list of things I am wanting to try to get done so we will see how this month goes along.
If you are interested go check out her page/add this button to your own blog and get to creating something rad...even if its something simple just do it!!