Baked Three Cheese Ziti

I made this for dinner the other night. It was super tasty and real easy.

It was in one of my williams sonoma books. I altered it a bit. Here is the recipe:

1 C ricotta
2 C shredded Romano ( I used a mixture of Asagio, Parmesan and Romano)
1/2 lb or 8 oz. Fresh Mozzarella cheese
1 lb box of Ziti
1 can diced tomatoes
1 jar tomato sauce ( I go for Prego Traditional)
1/2 C chopped fresh parsley
1 small onion diced
3 cloves garlic, diced
1 egg yolk
olive oil

Preheat oven to 425. Grease a 3 qt baking dish. I used a 13" x 9" baking dish. Bring a salted pot of water to boil. Cook Ziti until al dente according to package directions.
Meanwhile in a large saucepan over medium high heat cook garlic and onion in a little bit of olive oil until onion is transparent. Add in diced tomatoes and tomato sauce.You can turn down the heat some since you just need to be heating up the sauce.

In a large bowl mix together Ricotta, 1/2 of the Romano cheese, egg yolk, and parsley.
When pasta is done drain and add to cheese mixture.
Add the mozzarella to the tomato sauce and let melt a little. When it is mostly melted add tomato sauce to the pasta and cheese mixture.
Pour pasta and sauce into baking dish. Top with remaining 1/2 of Romano cheese and drizzle with olive oil. Bake about 20 minutes until slightly brown and bubbling. Let sit 5 minutes before serving.

Dinner is served

So for dinner I made some Parmesan and Romano cheese rice with asparagus sauted in butter and garlic, as well as shrimp marinated in olive oil and itallian seasoning then sauted with garlic. It was pretty good!

Razzo

So for my birthday dinner I picked this Italian restaurant called Razzo. Neither Zach or I had been there before. It is in Oceanview, which isn't too far from my house. The food there was really tasty.

Their bread was delicious and we ordered his awesome Baked Fennel. Which was really garlicy and had toasted bread with butter to go with it. So good. I could have just dipped bread in the sauce.

Zach got rigatoni ricotta, with sausage, and some other stuff I can't remember. His red sauce was super fresh tasting.

I ordered fettucini Alfredo with chicken. One of my favorites. The sauce was good. Not to heavy. I was also drinking a yummy Pinot Grigio I think it was called Woodbridge. Wine there is half off from 5- 6:30 too. Which is awesome since we got there early.

All in all it was very good. Great atmosphere there's only like 6 booths and 6 tables then a bar. So very quaint. Reminded me more of a Richmond restaurant. Basically I will definitely go there again!

Plus for dessert we went and got Rita's. So good. Although it made me feel over stuffed. My birthday was pretty boring sitting at work all day. But after work was awesome. Saturday will be even better!

Spinach fettucini with pine nuts.

So I made this last night with stuff I had laying around. I used spinach fettucini, I also toasted some pine nuts and sauted some baby spinach in butter and added some fresh garlic. I used bertolli alfedo sauce and topped it off with fresh parmesan cheese. It actually turned out pretty tasty! I think it would be good with some chicken or shrimp with it... maybe next time,

Shrimp and spinach white pizza

So last night for dinner I decided to make my own pizza I had gotten some dough from Trader joes so I thought I'd try it out. Here's basically what me and my sous chef Ashley did.

1 pkg. garlic and herb pizza dough from Trader joes
Roasted garlic
Ricotta cheese
Mixed Grated cheese (ours was a combo Parmesan, Fontina, Provolone and Romano)
Fresh Spinach
Small Shrimp
Olive oil
Artichoke hearts


Okay so First I peeled the shrimp while Ashley sauted the spinach with some of the roasted garlic and olive oil. She then cooked the shrimp in the same pan. I rolled the dough out on a floured surface and then spread it into a 12" round pizza pan. I coated the dough with ricotta, then sprinkled on the grated cheese. We dispersed the shrimp and spinach, added more roasted garlic ( I would have liked to have fresh whole cloves but we just used bought minced roasted garlic) I also added artichokes to part of it. No one else seemed to want any though they later regretted it! We then baked it at 425 for 10 minutes. It was Delish!

Yummy dinner last night

So, Last night after I ran, I picked up some stuff for dinner and proceeded to concoct this dish here.
I bought raw shrimp and we had to devein and de shell it. I sauted it with some garlic, olive oil, and lime juice (i wanted lemon juice but didn't have any) I also cooked some rice in the rice cooker. The asparagus was cooked in the pan after the shrimp I added some more garlic, lime and a bit of butter. Then once everything was done I put it all together with some fresh chopped parsley and salt and pepper to taste. It was SO GOOD. Plus it was easy to make! I think I did pretty well for winging it!


Zach and I also put up the new curtains and took down and trashed the old hanus ones. Sadly there is a 2 inch wide strip along the top of the window that is NOT painted. SO it looks super stupid. Eventually I will repaint... Whatever color goes in the livingroom will also have to go through the hall and maybe in the dining room as well.... SO thats a big job and I want to wait for those floor heat things to be taken out... Someday these things will get done...

So the summer seems to be quickly approaching which is awesome. I loathe winter and spring is just this anticipation for summer, and getting to lay out by the pool. Maybe this year I will have more time to go to the beach. At least I'm not immobilized by my foot.

Summer also means Zach is moving in.. only like 3 months to go. Crazy. I'm not going to lie I can't wait to have that 52" tv in the living room. and no more ugly entertainment center. Plus the insane surround sound he is getting. Our house will certainly be hooked up for some movie nights.

Lots of exciting things to come though! I wish everything didnt cost so much money!