yum.

a friend gave me this recipe and it has become one of our favorites. super quick and easy. try it out, you wont regret it, i promise :-)


Spicy Broccoli and Sausage Pasta

12oz small pasta (farfalle or penne. i use farfalle)
3 tbsp olive oil
1lb ground sweet chicken sausage (can be found at any local health food store)
3 garlic cloves minced
1 pinch dried crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 TSP pepper
3 heads of broccoli

In large pot bring salted water to boil. Add broccoli and cook 2 min. Remove broccoli, set aside. Cook pasta in same water. Drain and save 1 cup of liquid. In large pan brown sausage in oil. Add garlic and red pepper, saute 30 seconds. Add broccoli, pasta and 1/4 cup liquid, or more as needed. Stir in cheese and salt to taste. Enjoy!

i serve it with garlic bread it and bj loves it. this recipe makes a ton but it makes really great left overs too.

TIP: it seems odd to cook meat in oil right? or at least it did to me. the chicken sausage produces almost zero oil when you cook it, and the olive oil its cooked in has tons of flavor once the meat is cooked and the garlic and red pepper are sauteed in. along with 1/4 cup of liquid, the oil serves as the sauce when you add the broccoli and noodles to it. ALSO, if you don't feel like going to a health food store to get chicken sausage, you can buy sweet turkey sausage at any store and it works fine. its a tad bit greasier and i have found it usually doesn't come ground up already, but it will work fine in the end.

happy happy birthday!

happy 24th beej! i am so glad that today your little 4 lb body came into this world and survived! youre the best and i love you!!!!

we started the day off with a long bike ride, we watched a lot of football and then bjs family came over for dinner. bj got an iphone for his birthday and is LOVING it.

i forgot to buy candles...so here he is blowing out his lone candle.

i had to put this picture up bc bj just looks unbelievably handsome in it. oh wait, no he does not...i had to put it up bc im hoping if i put enough bad pictures up of bj he will stop trying to ruin every picture i take of him. turd ;-)

GOGIRL!!!!!

bj is ALWAYS talking about little little inventions that would make life easier or little contraptions he wants to have that don't currently exist. one time we watched a thing on tv about a woman who invented some stupid cake slice holder thing and now she is a millionaire. so anyway, when bj starts telling me about some invention he has in his head, for me its fun to hear bc most of the time the concepts are good and its fun to hear how his mind works.

there is a story about bj that his whole family laughs at- when bj was younger he would always say camping would be amazing if there were air conditioners you could take with you into a tent. so he decided to try it and make his own version of this invention...i don't remember the details of what happened next but i think it involved a cooler, a fan, dry ice...and maybe a few other things. and yes, it cooled the tent...while also being toxic to the person in the tent. or something like that. needless to say, that idea wasn't exactly a money maker ;-)

the last time we went camping bj and his cousin jeremy talked (for hours) about " a funnel type thing" that they were going to invent for girls to make going pee while your standing/squatting easier. they said it would be mainly for camping but that girls could really take it anywhere if they wanted. they talked about how simple the actual product would have to be it would be to make and how unbelievability use full it would be for women who have to go when here is no bathroom around. it would be disposable and EVERYONE would buy it bc it would make camping for girls so much easier! ally and i laughed and thought it was a good idea, but maybe not that good.

i was on my lunch break at work the other day when a clip on this new product was featured.

http://www.go-girl.com/

the same exact product. whoever owns the company just started marketing it. they are calling it a "new spin on an old idea". the news caster guy said "its all the rage in Europe and overseas".

uhhh....ooopsie. there goes our millions.

i think next time ill try to be a little more supportive of bjs "silly ideas" :-)

freezer jam

i made homemade jam for the first time the other day and it was so easy! i expected it to be long and complicated but it was so far from that. it tastes so much better than store bought and is good for short term food storage.

i tried out two recipes and they both turned out DELISH. with the first recipe i made only strawberry. with the seond i made strawberry, blackberry and peach and they all turned out so yummy! as far as the recipes go i prefer the second, but only because it uses less sugar and is a little thicker. make both and decide for yourself!

1. recipe from http://just-cook-already.blogspot.com/ (thanks jenna :-)! )

*2 cups pureed strawberries
*4 cups sugar
*2 TBSP lemon juice
*1 package powdered pectin
*3/4 cup water

In a large bowl, combine strawberries, sugar & lemon juice. Let sit 10 minutes. Meanwhile in a small sauce pan- bring water to a boil. Add pectin. Bring back to a boil. Cook at hard boil for 1 minute. Pour pectin mixture into strawberries. Stir until sugar is all dissolved. (i usually feel it between my fingers till it is no longer grainy) Pour into washed & dried containers, either glass or plastic, store in the freezer up to 1 year or in the fridge for 1 month.

2. recipe off back of "Ball" brand fruit pectin box

*1 package of ball brand fruit pectin
*your favorite fresh or frozen fruit to yield 4 cups crushed
*1 and 1/2 cup sugar

stir sugar and contents of fruit pectin package in a bowl until well blended. stir in 4 cups crushed fruit. stir 3 minutes longer. ladle jam into clean jars. let stand 30 min to thicken. store in freezer up to a year or the fridge for 1 month.

aloha and mahalo.

Hawaii was a blast. in the months leading up to Ashley's wedding, i came to terms with the fact that i would not be attending. BUT a few weeks shy of the big day my sweet sweet husband surprised me with tickets to go!! what a gem he is :-).

in mixed up order, here are a ton of pictures from our trip:

all the bridesmaids

smirge and imom and pops coslett us with nick and heather, we love these guys!

we played tons of sand volleyball while we were there, so fun!

Ashley's beautiful dress

pretty kona temple

the newlyweds!

lava....we hiked through a lava rock field and were so close to the lava. scariest 2 hours of my life. for real.

waterfalls

black sand beaches

pretty cliffs

beej and ceej before our LONG day trip in the jeep. emphasis on long.

us before the wedding

virg ash and kat hanging out

our feet....and bjs awesome flip flop tan line if you look close enough. hah.

ooooohhhweeee hottie!

boo for ugly lava hike
hooray for pretty beaches the ugly lava led us to ! this beach is voted one of the prettiest in the world.

funny.

turtles!

at the airport on the way TO hawaii.

the wedding was beautiful and i am so happy for my Ashley. i loved getting to experience a whole new place and that we were able to be there with so many people we love. especially since virg was there. the cosletts were were such great hosts to us and cooked so many wonderful meals, including breakfast every morning. it was fabulous.

the cosletts are mine and virgs second family and it was so fun to be on vacation with them. for me, it was really neat to watch bj interact with their family, and especially with the coslett men (jerry nick and cj.). bj only met them a few times prior to the trip, but you never would have known! he was treated like family right away. there was none of that awkward "don't really know each other" bull with them. even though they are each so different, they all gelled with bj right away and i love that. i am sure it would have been like that with Ashley's new husband, lance, but we hardly saw those little love birds after their wedding day. hmmm... weird ;-).

it was a really great trip and i am so grateful for my hubs who knew just how important being at Ashley's wedding was to me :-). we cant wait to go back!

aloha!