Spinnaroni Penne

This is a blend of a dish from my Australia The Beautiful Cookbook (which I love for the vagary of its adjective) and a sauce from Our Best Bites. It's yummy and gooey and crispy on top, AND it has spinach which practically makes it a health food. Except that the spinach is . . . well, you'll see. My favorite thing about this meal is this: as we were eating, I mentioned that I was going to blog about the recipe, and asked, "What should we call this dish?" Abby responded, "The Little Mouse!"

Spinnaroni Penne
or, The Little Mouse

Sauce:
2 C low-fat milk
1/3 C (3 oz) low fat cream cheese
Okay, before we go any further, I have to confess: this is called "Guiltless Alfredo Sauce," but in my copy the less is crossed out and a y substituted, because I use whole milk and regular cream cheese. It's delicious. Don't judge me [hi Heidi!])
2 T flour
1 t salt
1 T butter
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 C grated Parmesan cheese

Toss milk, cream cheese, flour, and salt in a blender and process until smooth.
In a non-stick saucepan, melt better on medium-high heat and add garlic. Saute for 30 seconds, add milk mixture. Stir constantly until it simmers, about 3 to 4 minutes. Keep stirring until it thickens considerably, about 5 minutes. Remove pan from heat, stir in cheese, and cover immediately. Let stand 10 minutes or more before serving.

Pasta:
5 oz pepperoni, cut into julienne (this is the stick, not the pre-sliced)
1 bunch carefully rinsed or pre-washed bag spinach, coarsely chopped
1/2 lb penne
1 1/3 C panko (or you can use regular breadcrumbs and saute them in butter for 3 minutes)

Directions:
Make sauce. Preheat oven to 350 F and butter a 2 qt baking dish.
In a frying pan over medium heat, saute the pepperoni until nicely browned, about 7 minutes. Remove to paper towels with a slotted spoon. Saute spinach in pepperoni drippings until wilted, about 5 minutes. Combine drained pepperoni and wilted spinach.
Cook pasta to al dente according to package directions. Drain well.
Fold 3/4 of sauce into penne. Layer half the penne into buttered baking dish and top with spinach mixture. Scatter remaining penne evenly over the top and spoon on remaining sauce. Sprinkle breadcrumbs over the top.
Bake in oven until hot and bubbling, 20-25 minutes. Serve immediately.

Sock It To Ya

These are my socks that I knitted myself, with some hand-painted yarn that I got for my birthday. I love that they don't match.

 

 

 

 

The pattern is called "Labyrinth" and the yarn named "Indian Corn," so I got a big chuckle out of the fact that I called this project "Maze." Y'know, like maze the puzzle and maize? HAHA! Ha. It was funnier in my mind.

Goody!

Good news: I used up my weekly allotment of DUMB in one fell swoop today by emptying a cup of peppercorns into the dishwasher. All my actions for the rest of this week should be characterized by extreme forethought and intelligence.

Regulate, Formalize, Educate

I've displayed Abby's spectacular dancing on this blog before. While she already has a great style of her own, I thought it would be good to introduce her to a little more formal type of dancing, so we enrolled her in a ballet class. It's been a great source of exercise and very therapeutic: I belly laughed so much the first class that my gut was sore the next couple of days. Watching a bunch of 3-year-olds galumph, stumble, and blank-stare their way through a 45-minute class definitely raises my spirits.




And actually, if watching your child try to master the arabesque and plie appeals to you, it's your lucky vague time period: Studio K Dance Academy has openings available for 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, and 10 year old kids. You can find the details in that link to their blog. We've only been twice so far, but I think it's a great value and lots of fun. They mention on the blog that it is a very low pressure studio, which I can vouch for as far as Abby's class goes. We'd love to see you there!

Feeling Corny

Abby and Evie are both happily following in their father's footsteps by devouring corn at every opportunity. We thought it was really cute that Evie could hold her own corn. And she may have done a better job of clearing off the cob than Abby did.

Right on Target

A few minutes ago, I finished a stressful shopping trip to Target with the girls. I turned from tussling the girls into the car to see an SUV with SERENITY printed on the back window, and experienced my first adult brush with hysterical laughter.

Treats

This is why I believe heaven will smell like lime and toasted coconut.

Happy Tails to You

I think family trends are quite amusing. My sister just blogged about her daughter saying Mommy (in a sentence), and my brother-in-law just posted about his daughter's pony tails. So I'm just trying to keep up with the Gotbergs and Browns.

Mom Mom bo-bomb

Evie said "Mom" for the first time today. I was SOOO excited. For weeks I've been saying "No, I'm Mommy" when she grabs me and reaches out her arms to be picked up, crying "Daadaa!" Looks like it's finally sinking in.

Preparation

A natural disaster hit our condo!

But don't worry. We survived.

Actually, the Sunday before last, our bishop spoke about emergency preparation, and at the end of his presentation, declared a preparedness practice: we were not to shop for the next three days, not put gas in the car, and try to use as little electricity as possible. I imagine it was a little more exciting for some of our ward members, but we always do our grocery shopping for the week on Friday or Saturday anyway. The only thing we didn't have enough of was: TOILET PAPER. It was kind of funny, because Sunday morning I mentioned to Regis that I would absolutely positively have to be sure and go to the store on Monday, because we only had THREE rolls left. So of course . . . no shopping for you! My sweet visiting teacher called Monday and asked if there was anything I needed, and very kindly brought us a few more rolls. As it turned out, we would have made it to Wednesday afternoon on our own (is that too much information?) but it was nice to have that security. :)

So now we've gotten really focussed on our food storage and 72-hour kit. Having kids reeeeally increases the amount of stuff you need, even in an emergency. But we're having a good time pricing cans of freeze dried fruit and canned bacon (I'm told it's quite tasty!). Now we just need to figure out where to put it.

Mooooo-what?

My second child has just weaned herself, just like the first child did. I'm delighted this time. I had a really hard time when Abby decided she was done--I felt rejected. Evie is about the same age as Abby was, but I think it's easier this time because she'd already cut way back on the amount and number of times she was nursing. Now if I could just get her to drink cow milk . . .

Does This Husband Make Me Look Fat?

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/overweight/MY01185

Abby's Party

We had a great time at Abby's birthday party at the park. The kids loved the egg hunt, throwing bean bags at the cow, and playing "Sheepie Sheepie, Go to Grass." The adults' favorite part was, of course, our magnificent cake. Not everything went quite the way I planned it (the pavilion was taken over entirely by a family reunion or something, and it was too windy for some of our games), but I think everyone had fun. Abby did, anyway, and that was the whole point.

Breaking News

Stay tuned for a report on Abby's birthday party. I anticipate great things.

Dancin' dancin' dancin'

And you just know that in her head she looks exactly like Beyonce.

Goals and a Caveat

One of my goals for this year is to improve my posture, so next time you see me, remind me to stand up straight.

My other goal is to punch people who nag me.

Just so you know.

Bits and Pieces

I've been spending scads of money lately, mostly because I have a child who is turning three and good grief, you can't expect me to dress a three-year-old in clothes that are 2T! Oh, the humanity!

Evie's becoming a real person: she understands what I mean when I say things like "sit down," even if she doesn't choose to obey. I took the girls to the library the other day, and while Abby sat and battered the public computer's keyboard, I tried to pick out some books for myself. I had to take frequent breaks to chase Evie down the aisles in a quietly noisy way, because hearing me behind her made her squeal and giggle and speed up. It was hugely fun in a guilty way.

I have this constant nagging feeling that I'm being left behind. Any time a day of the week is mentioned, I kind of freeze and think "I know I have something that day. WHAT is going on that day?" Generally speaking, the real answer is nothing, but that doesn't stop me from having a stress attack about it.

And you know how I mentioned my new haircut a few posts back? I just realized that I got it cut nearly the exact same length when Abby was the age Evie is now.

Sometimes I have to step back and remember that one's cell phone is for one's own convenience, not the convenience of others. This applies to myself and to those I'm trying to reach.

Sign of the Times

Coordinating nicely with my last post, I found my first grey hair yesterday. Yaaaaay.

Brought to you by the letter C

Today Crystal met one of the heartbreaks of parenthood: when your child is the uninvited one. Ouch, ouch, ouch. I'm hurt on her behalf and terribly glad she doesn't understand. Is that justification for letting her watch movies all day and eat cookies for lunch?

Familiar Fish