Ravioli's

Well I did it. Only took about 3 hours! I decided on This youtube video:
 to help me make the pasta. Worked like a charm! But rolling it out was a real chore! Then I made the olive garden copy cat portobella mushroom recipe with sun dried tomato sauce because I love that sauce.

Could not get the link to work so just do a search on food.com. Everyone complained the sauce was way to thick and sure enough mine came out to thick as well, even though I tried for it not to!

Oh well, I was very proud that my ravioli's held up as I boiled them and the sauce did taste very close to OG's but, yes, too thick.
Not sure I will attempt this again, I am exhausted and I have to clean up the mess!!

So in closing I only recommend making your own if you have a pasta roller, and a live in maid! "Alice, there's a surprise in the kitchen for you!"

Bon Appetite!

Flour on the floor and me! Thank goodness I have a full supply of aprons!

Rav's are boiling and the sauce just gets thicker!

Not too shabby, but with an olive garden 1 mile from my house, I won't do this again!!
Especially since I can duplicate their chicken scampi and zuppa toscana soup without fail!

 

 

Dinner is served with a little Dwight!

I got to have some fun on Saturday night, my friend Tanya got us tickets to the Dwight Yoakam concert at the Palms. We love to see him when he comes to town, him and Chris Isaak. Each and every time! Fabulous performers and singers!
Tanya picked me up from a hotel near her home, I had some points to spend and so I picked a Hilton close to her since I can't really drive at night. I can barely see my TV from my couch and it is only 10 feet away, hey, it's a bitch getting old. So, since Charlie was at the racetrack I just grabbed a room for the night and Tanya drove me to and from, she is awesome like that. I am blessed to have friends who love to drive everywhere, Mary NR is like that too, will drive anywhere! Thank you guys, I love you!
So, Tanya gets us to the Palms and I said I was buying dinner for her driving, we head to the cafe there called 24/7. The menu has some great stuff listed, Tanya decided on a chicken Caesar wrap with sweet potato fries, and I chose a grilled chicken salad with all kinds of stuff and a creamy chipolte dressing. Amazing food! She ate all her food and was dipping the fries in the chipolte dressing which we discovered was a fabulous combo! My salad was packed with strawberries, grapes, pecans, all kinds of goodies, it was delicious!!
I could not stop thinking about that amazing chicken wrap and fries she had and decided I had to try it for myself!
So here you go:
chicken breasts
flour tortillas
caesar dressing
parmesan cheese
black pepper- fresh ground please
some chipolte pepper sauce
romaine lettuce
a bag of frozen sweet potato fries

Grill your chicken: sprinkle chicken breasts with salt and pepper, fry in a pan with butter and olive oil until browned then pop in the oven for 15 minutes at 400*, take out and cover with foil to rest, at least 15 minutes, then cut up into bite size pieces.
In a large bowl add chopped romaine, grated parmesan, ground black pepper, some dressing, not too much, just lightly coat the lettuce, then add chicken, stir. Get your tortillas ready, add some of salad mix and roll and wrap in foil. Stick in fridge for about two hours. Mix some chipolte with some caesar dressing and put in fridge. When it is time to eat, bake the fries for 30 minutes and serve with dipping sauce and the wraps, this was a very good dinner for a hot windy night in Las Vegas!!

Wonderful!

The brands I used, very good stuff!

And now for a little Dwight to go with that dinner, this song is very special to me and my hubby, I am a pisces, born in march and with Green eyes, yes, I have the green eyed, jealous monster raging inside me, so this song is our song, by Elvis, by Dwight, or by the Fine young cannibals, it's all good:
Enjoy...

We scrapped, we ate, we wined!

Back from the Anaheim scrapbook expo! Got 10 pages completed, still have a couple more pages to go to finish my Europe trip book!
We stayed at the Double Tree Hotel near the convention center, walked back and forth, walked to restaurants. Love that!
We arrived Thursday, went to the store for wine and snacks, then just ate dinner at the hotel restaurant, very good food, had mushroom raviolis, my go to food right now!! The breakfast burrito in the mornings was phenomenal.
We set up at the crop and got to work, well, we talked, shopped, scrapped, then dinner Friday we walked to Buca di Peppo, then back to scrapping and wine. Back to the hotel for some sleep at midnight.
Saturday morning up and at it again, cropped, shopped, Mary F. joined us today for some cropping fun, we headed to the Cheesecake Factory where Travis and Rebecca met up with us, Rebecca's birthday is tomorrow so we gave her gifts early, Christy and I went in on a fit bit for her, she loved it!

We finished up Saturday night and packed it all up, got some sleep and I headed home Sunday! Another fun filled, scrap filled, wine filled, weekend with the girls!!

Mary keeping warm!

Christy and our scrap table!

Me and Travis and Rebecca, cheesecake was peanut butter!

The croppers, about 400 of us were there!

Got my Ontario layouts done in my travelling scrapper book!

Love the themes they come up with! I voted for pajama party for next time!

Trip to San Diego with Charlie in mine and his scrapbook.

San Diego baseball trip.

The farm in Italy we went to.

My next trip is my cruise to Scandinavia, so I must finish up my Spain and Italy book before I leave for that! Be back soon with more fun and exciting news from Las Vegas!

Ready for some scrapbooking!

Me and my sister, Christy, in a scrapbook layout I did for my travel scrapbooks!

 

Going to be scrapbooking all weekend! Oh, and I take my TAP exam to get travel agent certified!

Not sure how that is going to turn out, so many codes to remember and so much information out there!! It is a 100 question test that I have to accomplish in two hours!

But, I will give it my all and hope to get a little job in a little travel agency somewhere, just to make enough money so I can keep travelling!

Lots of living to get busy doing!

See you back here soon with more fun in the sun!

Oh and Happy Spring!! Just a couple more months until summer, wheeeeeeeeee!

#49

Cheers to #49!

Thursday was my 49th birthday.

yep. 49. ugh. In the sweet words of Garth Brooks: "I'm too young to feel this damn old"

Hubby took me to a nice dinner then we walked around for awhile and came home to go to bed at 9. Yes, we are old people, we eat by 5 and go to bed at 9. We like being old fogies!

We went to Maggiano's on the strip next to the fashion show mall, I had the Mushroom ravioli's, and they were so delicious!!

My view out the window, That's the Wynn resort, so pretty!

I have some lovely gifts from my friends and family I need to a show you, so stay tuned!!

I'm Baaaaaacccckkkkk!!!

Wow, did not mean to leave you for so long....
Nothing really new going on, spring cleaning, working for the man, studying.
Oh exercising!
Yes, I do that, being the foodie that I am, I know I have to exercise to be able to eat all these incredible dishes I keep finding on pinterest!!
This one is a doosie!!
And because it is pasta, there has to be wine involved, I am a true Italian, wine with food....OK, so I am not Italian, but I should be! I do talk with my hands for some reason???

OK, back to food and wine...
and exercising...
The fitbit force is my new motivation, thanks to my friend Colleen who is a fitness-aholic.. you name it she has tried it, and she looks great for her age, in fact she looks younger then I!! and she is not by a bit much. Would never know it!!! People probably think she is my younger sister!!

She got me and my sister hooked on the fitbit force, it monitors everything you do during the day, steps walked, food ate, calories burned, even your sleep pattern!!! Our goals are 10,000 steps a day, it tracks those for you and buzzes on your wrist when you have accomplished it.
We are all hooked up with each other so it is usually Colleen in first place, Christy-my sister- in second, and then me...but this thing really motivates you and you want to hit that 10,000!!
And you want to try to beat your sister and your friend!!

Run out and get one today, at 120.00 it is a real bargain to keeping in shape. Walking 10,000 steps a day is four miles a day and is usually the calories you take in each day if you are careful, that way you can maintain your weight or you can lose weight. You choose!

Now on to the awesome recipe I found on ...yep....Pinterest!!!

Lemon asparagus pasta.
Thanks go out to www.crunchycreamysweet.com

I added my to die for "grilled, roasted chicken" and it was fabulous!!! I also upped the pasta to 2 cups, added lemon juice with the zest, crushed red pepper and fresh grated parmesan. I am in love.

Ingredients

1. 6oz. bow tie pasta, uncooked
2. 1 Tbsp olive oil
3. 10 to 15 asparagus spears, washed, trimmed, cut into 2" pieces
4. 1 garlic clove, minced
5. zest from half Meyer or regular lemon
6. 2 c 2% milk
7. 2 Tbsp cornstarch
8. salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Cook pasta according to the instructions on the package. Drain and keep warm.
2. In a large skillet, heat up oil over a medium heat.
3. Add asparagus and saute until soft, about 2 to 3 minutes.
4. Add garlic and stir it in. Cook for 30 seconds.
5. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together milk and cornstarch.
6. Add the milk mixture to the sauteed asparagus, gradually, 1/4 of a cup at a time, stirring constantly. Let the sauce thicken before adding more milk. Repeat until you use all the milk.
7. Add lemon zest and cook for 30 seconds.
8. Add pasta and toss to coat it with the sauce.
9. Serve warm.

Here are the shots from my cooking:

Chicken breasts, cook in olive oil, butter and salt and pepper and lemon pepper, brown in skillet, then transfer to oven for 20 minutes, let rest, then slice up! Perfect!!!

I love this stuff, it's just like candy!! (10 points if you can name that show!!)

The pasta getting all creamy wit it! hahaha!

Toss in the bowl wit the chick and waa-laa!

Throw on some fresh grated parmesan, add a little pinot grigio, dinner is served!!
Oh, yes, I add ice to my wine...shoot me. I have to have ice cold drinks!!

 

See you next time on onecreativecat.com where wine and fun and food come together!

Been raining here in the desert, I have been staying in. Cooking, studying, doing some spring cleaning!

This is a very simple fool-proof banana bread, it is the one my husband absolutely loves!

I don't eat banana bread, but I love to make it when it rains, it makes the house smell so good 

and warm and cozy!

Brown sugar banana bread:

1 cup brown sugar packed

1 stick butter soft

2 eggs

2 cups mashed bananas (about 4-5 bananas)

2 cups all purpose flour

2 tsps baking powder

dash of salt

Cream the sugar and butter, add eggs, mix well, add bananas, mix well, add flour, salt, baking powder. 

Mix well. Pour into greased 9x5 loaf pan, Bake at 350* for an hour or until toothpick comes out clean from center. Let cool, then wrap and store in fridge, it is much better the next day!