Easy Shrimp Carbornara

Ok folks, two things. 1. Wow. I'm a bad blogger. I've totally neglected this little guy for a month. My bad. Life has just been bananas. 2. I suck at cooking.

With that being said, I made dinner the other night for the hubs. He LOVES carbornara, or however the heck you spell it. So I found a delish recipe that even I could make (so you know it's easy!!) that I had to share!

http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/quick-pasta-carbonara-113735.aspx

What You Need

1/2 lb. fettuccine

4 slices OSCAR MAYER Bacon, chopped

4 oz. (1/2 of 8-oz. pkg.) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, cubed

1 cup frozen peas

3/4 cup milk

1/2 cup KRAFT Grated Parmesan Cheese

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

Make It

COOK pasta as directed on package. Meanwhile, cook bacon in large skillet until crisp. Remove bacon from skillet with slotted spoon, reserving 2 Tbsp. drippings in skillet. Drain bacon on paper towels.
ADD remaining ingredients to reserved drippings; cook on low heat until cream cheese is melted and mixture is well blended and heated through.
DRAIN pasta; place in large bowl. Add cream cheese sauce and bacon; mix lightly.

Kraft Kitchens Tips

Substitute

Prepare using PHILADELPHIA Neufchatel Cheese.

Serving Suggestion

For added color and texture, serve with a mixed green salad tossed with your favorite KRAFT Light Dressing.

Substitute

Prepare using your favorite pasta

 

My substitutions/additions:

 

I added shrimp. My husband NEEDS meat. Some sort of meat is a necessity for him. One would think the bacon would be enough, but no. Anyway, since I don't eat anything but seafood, shrimp seemed like it would work. Viola.

 

We added more garlic. We love garlic in my household, so we added minced garlic, rather than garlic powder. That was yummy.

 

Since we added the shrimp, I used more cream cheese. I just used a whole pack, rather than half. It was perfect.

 

And that's it. Quick, easy, divine.

 

Happy eating!

What to Do with That Leftover Turkey: Recipe Link-Up

I'm linking up with Pamela from Our Loves Nest blog today. She's awesome, from Maryland, and is a newlywed too. I think she's pretty stellar! Make sure you check out all her super recipes and her adorable blog! Since we had a lot of leftover turkey, C and I decided to share our take on Tortilla Soup. Enjoy!

We had, brace yourselves, FOUR turkeys at my house on Thanksgiving. Bless my husband’s little heart; he went above and beyond with the Thanksgiving feast. So of course we had a gazillion pieces leftover. Since we were getting sick of turkey sandwiches, we wanted to try something a little different. So, we made turkey tortilla soup. And, I should preface, HE made it. I don’t cook, but I’m very handy with opening cans and doing cleanup. J

Turkey Tortilla Soup

Ingredients:

·         2 tablespoons of olive oil

·         1 medium yellow onion, chopped

·         1 box or 32oz of vegetable, or chicken broth

·         1 can diced tomatoes (15 oz)

·         1 can whole, peeled tomatoes  (28 oz), quartered

·         2 cans black beans (15 oz), drained and rinsed

·         1 cup cilantro, roughly chopped

·         1 cup parsley, roughly chopped

·         1 jalapeño, finely diced

·         4 cloves garlic, finely chopped

·         Juice of one lime

·         Leftover Thanksgiving turkey (about 2 pounds)

·         Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper, to taste

·         2 eight inch tortillas, cut into strips

·         1 bag blue corn tortilla chips

·         1 cup mozzarella cheese

·         Sour cream, to taste

Directions:

In a large saucepan heat the olive oil. Add the onions and cook for 2 minutes. Then, add the garlic and the jalapenos. Since I am horrible at following directions and time, I do this until they are brown. I know, I’m so helpful. J

Next, pour the vegetable broth, tomatoes, beans and half of the parsley and cilantro into a pot and bring to a boil. Add salt and pepper to taste. Once boiling, lower heat to simmer and add the turkey. Here is where you get your significant other, or yourself, if you are way braver then moi. You take the turkey and start to shred it. You can use a potato smasher or a whisk.  It’s hot and I’m a wuss. Add lime juice to your liking and then add the rest of the cilantro and parsley.  Now you can add the tortilla slices into the soup or for more crunch, fry or bake the tortilla slices until crisp.

Now in your bowl, add the blue tortilla chips and shredded cheese. Then, scoop the soup and enjoy with a dollop of sour cream.

Your taste buds can thank me later.

Bon apatite!

To do list

So, the hubby deployed in February. It is now mid July. And guess who has her to do list done? Not this girl. Woops.

So here's the deal. I wanted to do a few things before the hubby returns in 38 days. It's not looking too hot....

1. I wanted to clean out my closet.

I have an obsession with clothes. C can tell you though, when he is home, I'm good about shopping. I rarely do it. But, when is gone, I get lonely and cure that loneliness by shopping.

Woops.

I still have a lot off work to do.

I have a hard time getting rid of stuff. Everything has a meaning to me. I need to get over this. For those of you on here that periodically clean out your closets, how do you do it? I need help.

2. I want to learn how to cook.

Hubby is a meat eater. I can't stand that stuff. So of course when he is gone I don't cook meat. Unless of course anyone feels brave. If you know my husband in real life, ask him about the time I served pink chicken. Apparently it's not supposed to be a "pretty color." Who knew.

3. Work out like a mad woman.

I'm lazy. I work three jobs. This isn't boding well.

Amen, Natalie. Amen.

With 38 days to go, I have a lot to accomplish. Wish me luck! And if you hear of me slacking, crack the whip. Or, give me an ice cream sundae. That'll do too.

Where did all the rum go?!

As I'm sure many are this year, I've had to be very creative in the gift giving arena. With that being said, I decided to make Cinnamon Rum Caramel Sauce. Mind you, I don't cook. I'm learning my way around the kitchen, so when I told C what I was attempting his exact words were, "good luck. I hear caramel is tricky." Crap.

As I looked at the recipe, I told myself that I could do it. You never know til you try, right? If it is a complete disaster, fine. At least I tried.

The recipe is as follows:

source

Bananas Foster Cinnamon Rum Caramel Sundae


Ingredients
■1 cup of sugar
■1/4 cup water

■6 Tbsp butter

■1/2 cup half and half (many recipes for caramel sauce call for heavy cream; I’ve had great success with half and half but if you want an even richer end result, by all means substitute an equal amount of heavy cream) (I used the half & half and was happy with the results!)

■1 tsp cinnamon

■3 Tbsp rum (I used Bacardi Gold)

■1/4 cup coarsely chopped and toasted California walnuts (follow @CaWalnuts on Twitter!)

Preparation

1.Whisk cinnamon and rum into half and half and set aside.


2.Combine 1 cup sugar and 1/4 cup water in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, whisking constantly.


3.Once mixture starts to boil, turn heat to medium-low and stop whisking.

4.Continue to boil until the mixture turns amber, about 10 to 15 minutes.

5.Remove pan from the stove and add butter; whisk in butter as it melts. (I had to modify this step and leave on heat. Immediately when I took off stove it hardened and clumped.)

6.When butter has melted, whisk in half and half mixture; it will bubble vigorously; just continue whisking til smooth.

7.Cool; will keep in the fridge for a couple of weeks (that theory has never been tested; it disappears too fast!).

Serving Suggestions


Pour 2-3 Tbsps of sauce per serving into a small non stick skillet. Add sliced bananas and heat til warmed.


Top vanilla ice cream with bananas and sauce and sprinkle with toasted walnuts or put two scoops of ice cream on a crepe, roll it up and cover with the bananas and sauce mixture and toasted walnuts.

Amazing, right?!

I emailed Barbara, the blog author, to ask her about serving. I wanted to put the sauce in cute little mason jars and give as gifts that way. She was so unbelievably easy to talk to and offered fabulous advice. Just what a cooking novice like myself needs. Thanks Barb!

Barb mentioned that she double the recipe and it was enough for 3 6oz mason jars. Mine were 8 oz so that could actually work! However, here is where I went stupid....

I followed the directions and doubled everything as I should. Once I got to the step to make simple syrup, I forgot to double the cooking time. So rather than having caramel sauce, I had caramel soup. This is where I needed C's help. I somehow managed to convince him that what I was doing was way more important than football and he listened (he rocks!). He realized my error right away. Since I had done the last steps already, adding butter, etc. we didn't want to chance it and mess anything up. He had a plan.

I decided I'm not skilled enough to double batches or recipes without supervision, so I just followed the directions like I should have in the first place. This is where my husband's culinary geniusness came into play. In the step where you add the rum/half&half mixture, we added my effed up batch. It had a real nice creaminess to it and we were able to salvage the ingrediants, as I had only bought enough for my 8 jars.

This time, it was magic. I freakin' made caramel! Woohoo! I made four jars just of caramel, then the next 4 I added toasted walnuts to the top. Hubby says it's delish and I didn't even have to bribe him to say that. Score!

Oh, and I only burnt one batch, which was before I drank some of the rum....

Bon Appetit!





Baking Gals!

My super fab cousin, Christiana introduced me to Baking Gals awhile back. My hubby deploys all the friggin' time so I thought this would be something fabulous to join!

He made a comment once that really hit home with me. I try to spoil him when he is deployed and send at least one care package a month. However, he said there are some guys and gals out there that don't receive anything. That was it! Not only did I start sending him quadruple of everything to share, but I knew I had to join this organization!

This post is also about baking as well. Those of you that have read some other posts know that I'm not the world's greatest chef. I try, but it usually ends in disaster. However, we did find something I'm great at. BAKING!

My Nana has been telling me for awhile now that I need to make these for C. He doesn't have a huge sweet tooth, so I often don't bake much when he is home for the fear that I will eat everything (this isn't so much a fear as a fact, ugh). Once baking gals said "welcome aboard, get to baking", I knew I had to do this! So I did! And I think it was a successful mission!

Moral of the story? Join Baking Gals. You not only help a guy or gal overseas out, but you also learn a little something about yourself. That you can bake like a champ, yo!

Before cooking. It looked like a hot, delicious mess of goodness. Yummmm. Oh, and something else...Unsweeted baking chocolate tastes awful.

Not too shabby if I may say so myself! Perhaps I should have tried a bite to make sure it was edible??

Tastes like heaven :)

My cup of tea!

OMG I love these!

Paper plates that are biodegradable?! Uh YES PLEASE! I love anything that is enviromentally friendly and that doesn't require me to do dishes :)


Source

I'll totally host Turkey day with these!

Rachel Who?! Guida Who?! There's a new kid in town!

So, without further ado, I present my brisket....
I found this recipe online at the food and wine site. I like food and wine. Literally food and wine, so naming a magazine/website after two of my favorite things was a very smart move. http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/gail-simmons-horseradish-brisket.

C said it's yummy, I'll take his word for it. Considering my 30 pound cat didn't like it makes me worry though....Anyone feeling brave enough for a dinner party?! My treat!