March 29, 2010

No Plans Weekend



For those of you that know me, you know that I am a mega planner (haha). This past weekend I only had one thing on my schedule. So what to do with all this free time?? Well I LOVE food and I enjoy cooking (when I have enough time) so I decided to try some of the recipes I had found. One of my favorites is pasta. I mean who doesn't love pasta?? So that was my theme for the day. I decided to make pasta sauce from scratch, turkey and artichoke stuffed shells, and Mediterranean mac & cheese. The sauce and shell recipes came from the one and only Giada and the mac & cheese from Martha.

I had no idea what I was getting into cooking all these things at one time. I never met my paternal grandmother but I have a feeling my Sunday was kinda like most of hers. In the kitchen all day preparing amazing pasta meals for everyone to enjoy. So lets just say I spent most of my day chopping, mixing, stirring, and baking. But I think everything turned out great. Here are a few pictures from my cooking adventures.

First my sauce...I had to do a lot of chopping for this one. I still haven't figured out how to cut an onion and not cry.




and now the chopping for the shells


One of my favorite cooking gadgets is my cheese grader. Best present ever. Thanks Donna!

and the mixture....it smelled so good with the fresh basil


The recipe said only about 24 shells but I made 2 huge trays and still had mixture left over. I stuffed these babies full too.



And the waiting begins........


But it was worth the wait!

This is the mac and cheese and my lunch for the week


I have never been so excited for lunch time.


So there you have it. Hours in the kitchen but it was enjoyed by all. (if you would like the recipes let me know. I didn't post them because they are so long)

Oh and in case you didn't notice I also love pictures.

I Did It

I have decided to join the blogging world. I wasn't sure if I should do it for many reasons. One because lets be honest.....I don't have that much interesting to say. And two the dreaded "followers" section. Will I ever get any followers??? But I decided that it doesn't matter that this is my little outlet to talk about whatever I wanted and who cares if no one reads it right?? I wanted to keep track and share all the memorable and maybe not so memorable things in my life. This is my little diary that is way cooler than my old one from 3rd grade. Enjoy!