Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Shrimp Scampi


























So I boasted that I make a mean scampi so I figured I better share the recipe. The kicker is it's super easy. Start a pot of water to boil first. The spaghetti actually takes the longest to cook. Hint don't salt the water until it starts to boil. Salted water takes longer to boil. Thank you Food Network.

Side note-big props to Boston Fish Market. This is where I usually go whenever I buy seafood. The guy there is great. He gives you it straight. I've gone in asking for something and he says nope won't sell it to you I don't like the way it looks. Yesterday where I bought the shrimp I bough a pound of mediums. He threw in a few extra because there was a little ice but only charged me for the pound. Didn't want me paying for ice.

So in a medium skillet combine a 1/2 stick of butter and once around the pan, maybe twice with olive oil. Melt the butter add the chopped garlic. Saute for a few minutes, but don't let it get brown. Your spaghetti should already be boiling away at this point. Add in the shrimp. I shell mine since I hate doing it while I'm eating. Cook them a couple of minutes on each side, until pink but not too long, don't want it getting rubbery. Add in halved grape tomatoes (be warned if Rachel is at your house when you are making this you must guard the tomatoes or she will eat them all while you are not paying attention. If you notice in the picture there are not many tomatoes, this is what happened). Drain your pasta, put in decorative bowl. Once the shrimp mixture is done add it to the bowl, sprinkle parsley and Parmesan cheese on it and stir. Enjoy!

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Calling all bakers


We have two bake sales coming up at the Y soon. One this Tuesday to raise money to put new hair dryers in the women's locker room. Sounds silly to have a bake sale for something like that but well just like everyone else out there the Y is broke. Now I'm not a big baker. I'll try just about anything when it comes to cooking but for some reason I am intimidated when it comes to baking. I roamed the baking aisle yesterday reading packages. I knew that I would make brownies, those are easy. But I wanted to make something else, something different. I have always thought fudge was very complicated and hard to make. I was so wrong. I made fudge today, and while it's still cooling so technically I haven't tried it, I did lick the spoon and man was it good.


We have another bake sale on Saturday, February 7th. This is our biggie for the YBL banquets. If anyone wants to buy or bake let me know we could use the help.


Here's a pic of my fudge.

Weekly Menu 1/25/09-1/31/09

Didn't do too bad last week. Moved a couple nights around and substituted one evening but didn't get take out just made something else I had in the freezer instead of chicken. Let's try and stick to this week and this entire month won't be too bad.

Sunday-Roast pork, over browned potatoes & roasted winter veggies (these are awesome)

Monday-Shrimp Scampi per Allen's request. I make a mean scampi!

Tuesday-Chicken & Rice

Wednesday-Pork chops of some sort

Thursday-Tacos

Friday-Steaks on the grill

My Birthday Weekend


Being that my birthday fell on a Friday I decided to celebrate all weekend instead of just one day. My advice everyone should do this, it's fun. Friday I had to work at 5:30 am (I do not recommend this). Allen had the kids call me at 7:15 am and sing to me. Gail brought me an ice coffee when she brought Rachel to school. That was very needed, though by my noon staff meeting I had so much caffeine in my I was a babbling mess. The girls from work conspired with Allen and got me a cake from Piro's and everyone sang to me at the end of the meeting. How cool is that?


On the way home from work Allen picked up sushi from New Tokyo, if you like sushi this place is good. The Alaska roll is awesome, do not eat the Red Dragon roll, yuck! I had messages on my phone from people, cards came in the mail, I got way too many presents for a person turning my age, and for those of you not in the know I am now 31. Saturday night we went out to eat with Bob and Gail which got a little crazy but worked out fine. My Dad stopped by with another present from Lyn, the Kuerig rack I've been looking for. Oh and did I mention she stocked it. Gotta love her!


SO thank you to everyone for the great birthday weekend.


Buffalo Turkey Burgers


Way back during the summer we had the Battle Burger Competition (by the way what ever happened to having battle chili?). Randy made a Buffalo Turkey Burger which was awesome. I decided to make it this week. Came out decent, not great. Worth trying again. I was leery of adding too much of the Texas Pete's but I didn't end up adding enough. Also, I didn't add enough bread crumbs so they were falling apart in the pan. I also needed some sort of cheese to top them with to add to the crumbled blue cheese that was inside. It was edible, in fact pretty good. I'll consider it a work in progress.


Sunday, January 18, 2009

My New Do!

Thursday night I went to Interlocks in Newburyport with Lyn to get a new do. So after a lot of primping and pampering I now have dark brown hair, with gold & another brown color high/low lights. It looks awesome. For some reason I didn't have Allen take my picture, which I just realized while I am blogging. Can't take one right now, because Rachel is styling my hair. So I will post one at a later date. Thanks a lot of Lyn!!! I love it !!!!

Cektics Game
















We had a really busy but fun week. Wednesday we went to the Celtics game with the Y. We sat in the promenade section, which gave the kids plenty of room to run around and play when they didn't want to watch the game, which was most of the time.

Alex's Belated Christmas Concert







St. Monica's finally had Alex's Christmas concert this past Monday. It went well, Alex lip synced most of the words for some reason. He wasn't thrilled with not singing traditional Christmas songs so that might be part of the reason. Here are a couple of pictures.






Weekly Menu 1/18/09-1/24/09

So last week started off right on plan and then veered way off course. Out of the 3 new recipes one was really good (the apple pork chops in the crock pot), and the other two were okay. This week I only have one new one.

Sunday-Roast, over browned potatoes & veggie

Monday-Crock Pot Argentina Beef Stew (new recipe)

Tuesday-Grilled chicken & veggies

Wednesday-Buffalo Turkey Burger for me and regular burgers for Allen

Thursday-Breakfast for dinner

Friday-It's my birthday I refuse to cook

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Weekly Menu 1/11/09-1/17/09

Did really well last week. Ended up moving the Friday meal to Thursday and then on Friday made scrambled eggs & sausage. We did good, no eating out! Ended up having Shrimp Scampi on Tuesday. Fish market was out of salmon which was my original plan. So here's this week.

Sunday-Peruvian Baked Chicken. Marinating now-new recipe from Rachel Ray's magazine so we'll see.
Monday-Crock Pot Golden Mushroom Pork Chops w/Apples
Tuesday-Drunken Chicken w/a bunch of added veggies
Wednesday-Celtics Game
Thursday-Grilled Chicken & Veggies
Friday-Italian Sausages w/peppers onions & side salads
Saturday-Mi Mexican Lindo w/Randy & Kristine for joint Birthday celebrations!

Should be an interesting week with 3 new recipes (Sunday, Monday & Tuesday). Hopefully no emergency take outs!

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Leftovers




I made Sesame Honey Chicken tonight. Or Honey Sesame Chicken I can never really remember what's called. I added broccoli and edamame to it to amp up the veggies, since basically it had none. So when all was said and done we both had a little left on our plates. Take a look and guess who's is who's (Hint Allen is definetly a carnivore not an herbivore).




Saturday, January 3, 2009

Weekly Meal Plan Jan. 4-10, 09

Just finished my food shopping for the week and here is the meal plan. Back to work on Monday, yuck!, so alot of easy meals since I will probably be working late alot to make up work.

Sunday-Pork Chops, veggies, etc.

Monday-Crock Pot Tuscan Beef Stew

Tuesday-Fish of some sort. Going to the fish market on the way home Monday.

Wednesday-Honey Sesame Chicken with Broccoli, onions, and edamame

Thursday-Kielbasa, potatoes & veggies

Friday-Sloppy Joes & salad

Saturday-not sure will probably go shopping on Saturday unless I have to work so it will be determined by what I buy. If I don't shop then it will be Chicken picata.

Tuscan Beef Stew

I love this stew recipe. It's different yet still close enough to beef stew that Allen doesn't complain. Well not much anyways.

Ingredients

1 can tomato soup
1 can beef broth
1/2 cup red wine or water
2 lbs. stew meat cut into 1 inch pieces
1 can Italian style diced tomatoes.
3 large carrots cut into 1 inch pieces
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
2 cans white kidney beans or great northern beans (drained)

Mix everything in crock put except beans. Cook on low for 8/9 hours or high for 4/5 hours. Stir in beans cook on high for about 10 minutes.

Yum!

Friday, January 2, 2009

Tub Time & More!











So cute I had to share!








New Year's 2008




15 of us enjoyed New Year's at the mountian house. Lot's of awesome food, fun and great memories. Here's some snap shots.




The Year In Review...2008!

So what happened this year? Well, alot.

We have a couple of new additions to the Ramsden/Becotte family. Renee had Dillon in the Spring and Megan had Ryder right after her. We adopted a new cat (not quite a baby but he's really cute!).

Allen and I celebrated our 10th Anniversary with an awesome trip to Key West!

We took the kids camping for the first time in a looooong time and had a blast.

Allen and Alex went to Camp Otter all summer and can't wait to go back this summer.

Alex started 1st grade and learned very quickly that it's not kindergarten.

We had another set of great holidays with the family. First Thanksgiving at Darren & Veronica's with Matt doing all the cooking. Next Christmas all over the place enjoying friends and family.

Allen wanted me to mention that we got a 47' TV, that was the highlight of his year!

Finish it all up with a trip up the mountains for New Years with the family and it was another great year.

Here's to 2009!