Linguine with Mussels and Sausage

I had never had a mussel until this weekend, and now, I cannot believe that I have been missing out on these morsels of oceanic heaven for 22 years! They are so good!

This pasta dish kind of came together on the fly for a small gathering of friends, but it is easily one of the best dinners that I have ever had. It was super easy to put together and took only about 30 minutes to cook!

What you'll need: (serves 5-6 guests)

• 2 lbs of Mussels
• 1 lb of Hot Italian Sausage
• 1 lb Linguine
  
• 6-7 Plum Roma Tomatoes
• 5-6 Cloves of Garlic
  
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• White Wine
• Garlic Powder
• Oregano
• Italian Seasoning
• Salt & Pepper
  

Recipe:

1. Clean you mussels. Grit in a mussel or clam can turn a delicious meal around, so you want to clean you mollusks well! Place mussels in an ice bath for 30 minutes. Since the mussels are alive, they will filter the clean, cold water through their internal system, thus cleaning themselves.
   
2. Remove beards from mussels and scrub thoroughly.
3. Keep cleaned mussel in ice bath.
4. Place a pot of salted water on stove to boil for pasta.
   
5. In a deep skillet with a lid, or a pot, heat up some olive oil over medium heat.
6. Add Italian sausages in their casings to pot and cook.
7. Remove from pot and cut up into slices.
8. Dice up the plum Roma tomatoes and place in pot with some olive oil and white wine
9. Mince garlic cloves and add to pot.
10. Add oregano, Italian seasoning, and salt and pepper.
    
11. Return sliced sausage to pot and let simmer and reduce.
    
12. Place pasta into water pot (should have come to a boil) and cook for approx. 10 minutes
13. Mussels do not take very long to cook, about 4-5 minutes, so when the pasta only has 4 minutes or so left, add mussels to sauce with a splash of white wine.
14. Strain pasta and add to sausage and mussels - mix together with tongs.
15. Discard any unopened mussels.
16. Serve family style in a large bowl - enjoy!
    

New Little Hat for a New Little Person!

My sister's friend just had a new baby, and what could be a better gift for a new little lady than a sassy pink and ivory hat?! That's what I was thinking last night, so I set to work with my Knifty Knitter loom kit and made a precious miniature hat for the newbie. I love making hats on these looms - it is incredibly fast, and the end product looks f'ing awesome!

To make this hat you will need:

• Caron Simply Soft in Plum Wine (less than 1/4 of a skein)
  
• Red Heart Soft Yarn in Off-White (less than 1/4 of a skein)
• Infant-sized Knifty Knitter Loom - Blue loom
• Yarn needle
• Loom hook tool
• Scissors
  

Make a Lil Hat:

1. Starting at the peg perpendicular to the others on the side of the loom, loop both color yarns around the peg to the right of the perpendicular peg and the rest of the pegs by creating a cursive e.
   
2. Repeat so that you have two set of loops on each peg (four pieces of yarn will be on each peg because of the double running color)
   
3. Using the hook tool, pull the bottom of the two rows up and off the peg, so that there is only one set of loops on the pegs.
4. Continue to loop yarn with cursive e pattern and pull over the bottom of the two rows.
   
5. Create brim by folding the first row you created up back onto the pegs - Use the hook tool to pull the bottom of the two rows up and off the peg - Since this hat is for an infant, it has a short rim of only 2 centimeters.
   
6. Continue making the hat as before until it is tall enough to fit the future owner.
7. Once a good height is reached, cut yarn off.
8. From one skein, loop a color (I used the pink) through the eye of the needle and pull off the final e loops from the loom with the needle.
9. Once all loops are off, remove needle from yarn and pull the loops closed. This creates the closed top of the hat.
   

Pom-Pom For Infant Hat:

1. Cut a 3 inch piece of yarn.
   
2. Wrap both yarn colors from skein 35 times around the three fingers (NOT the thumb). Four fingers is the usual for a hat, but for a child/infant, the four-finger system creates waaaay to big of a pom-pom.
   
3. Cut away from skein.
4. Carefully pull yarn off the fingers .
   
5. Tie the yarn together in the center with the 3 inch piece of yarn - if it needs to be tighter, you can add a second piece.
6. Use scissors to cuts the loops on either side of the 3 inch piece of yarn.
7. Even out the pom-pom using scissors
8. Use a yarn needle to attach to your desired surface area at top of hat.

Next, The Devil Made Eggs...And They Were Good

There's nothing devilish about Deviled Eggs - except maybe that they are ridiculously addictive and you can find yourself destroying a plate of them to yourself and then wondering why your stomach feels like it might explode...But besides that, deviled eggs are an awesome treat to bring to a party to satisfy those savory taste buds. My deviled eggs have some more kick then the normal, relatively bland, deviled egg. So, try out this 'kickin' it up a notch' recipe and get ready to receive a whole boatload of compliments!

You'll Need:

• 1 dozen eggs, hard boiled
  
• 2 Tablespoons of Country-style Dijon mustard
• 6 Tablespoons of Mayonnaise
  
• 1 Tablespoon of finely chopped shallots
• salt and pepper to taste

Time - 25 mins (if eggs are not already boiled)

Recipe:

1. Place eggs into pot of water and place on stove top on high heat
2. Bring to a boil and boil eggs for 10 minutes
3. Take pot off stove and run under a cold water bath in the sink for several minutes
4. Peel egg shells and cut eggs lengthwise into halves
5. Places hardened yolks into a mixing bowl
6. Add, mustard, mayonnaise, and shallots to the yolks and blend with a fork or potato masher.
7. Add salt and pepper to taste.
8. Your filling in now ready! I used a frosting bag and tip to pipe my filling in and give it some intrigue. you could also use a plastic bag with one tip cut off, or just spoon it on in there!
9. Sprinkle a dash of smoked paprika over your deviled eggs and then eat them all up with friends!
   

Victory Brewing Company's Yakima Twilight

Victory Brewing Company always makes delicious beverages that make my taste buds dance. So, when I cracked open my first Yakima Twilight and it was freaking delicious, I was hardly surprised as the familiar flavors of bliss and satisfaction caused a smile to tickle across my face.

My Rating: 92

Alcohol Content: 8.70%

Price: $12/6

Yakima Twilight pours a lovely, dark amber color and has a finger's width tan head. The aroma from the pour is rather sweet and malty, but also, there is a very sharp, citrus punch from the hops. The hops that are used in this delicious brew are native to the Yakima Valley of Washington. I don't know what's going on over yonder in that there western valley, but gosh darn, the hops in this beer are divine! The beer itself smells as if it should sip pretty crisply, but it actually is rather sweet and almost malty. This mix of odor and taste causes an awesome sensory explosion which is crisp and sweet and mostly importantly, delicious. This beer sips very easily and is not super heavy so is great for an evening of brews. I highly recommend it to anyone and everyone!

Alumni A Cappella Show

As a recent graduate of Providence College, I had the intoxicating pleasure this weekend to re-live the forgotten revelries of academia at Alumni Weekend. One of my favorite activities that I participated in during college, besides the copious incidents of evening debauchery, was a cappella.

Providence College has three amazing a cappella groups - Strictly Speaking, which is co-ed - Special Guest, which is all male - and my old group, Anaclastic, which is all female.

Every Alumni Weekend, tons of ex-a cappella members return to the halls of the music building to create harmonious tones with their voices.

The first group up was Strictly Speaking. Strictly Speaking is the youngest of the three groups, and thus had the least amount of alums return - nonetheless, they did an awesome rendition of The Beatles Paperback Writer.
The ladies of Anaclastic were next up at bat, and we pleased the crowd with several fan favorites such as Mariah Carey's Always Be My Baby, Imogen Heap's Hide and Seek, and Gordon Lightfoot's Song For a Winter's Night.
To close the show was, per usual, Special Guest. Special Guest is the oldest of the three groups and always has the largest showing of alumni that return to sing. This year, there were easily 20-25 fellows who returned to belt out harmonies and vocal percussion that somehow cannot be forgotten over the years...In this photo, Dan Farrell sings the ultimate crowd pleaser: Sexual Healing.
In my four years at Providence College, all three groups grew in leaps and bounds. New voices came into the ranks and with them, new ideas and new ways of doing things. A cappella is such an amazing and fun thing, and I guess in a way, this post is trying to help support and show the importance of college a cappella. Groups are springing up all across the nation as more and more folks are understanding and embracing this unaccompanied genre of music. If you can join a group - DO IT! If you can go to a concert - DO IT! Either way, as a participant or a listener, you will definitely be satisfied by the totally vocal creation which is born in a cappella.

Never Underestimate the Greens...

I'll have you know that I thoroughly enjoy eating a "bloody as hell" (ahhh pulp fiction) steak smothered in french fried onions, mushrooms and gravy, but every now and again, I get a hankering, a downright desire and need, for a crisp and delicious green salad.

Salad has gotten a bad rep over the years, I think generally because most often at restaurants, it is served cheaply as a side dish and often features tasteless, white iceberg lettuce and a general scarcity of other vegetables. This image is no doubt familiar, but it's time to change all that - it's time to bring the green salad into the foreground and out of its current, dingy side dish dwelling.

I don't care how you slice it - iceberg lettuce is crunchy water, and if I wanted that, I would just pulverize some ice cubes and make a mixed drink...There are sooooo many types of delicious lettuces out there! Go and meet them at your local grocer and see what appeals to you tastes!

Personally, I love a good spring mix with baby spinach, arugula, and a butterhead lettuce, such as Bibb or Boston. My husband, on the other hand, likes a crunchier mouth feel and loves Romaine lettuce. Thus, we usual have a hearty mix of lettuces in our salads.

I heard once (I can't for the life of me remember where....maybe my mom? Maybe Rachel Ray...besides the point) that a good salad should have 5 elements - your lettuce(s) and then 4 other ingredients.

The salad featured in the photo above features:

• Lettuce(s)
• Cucumber
• Hard-boiled egg
• Cubed chicken breast, cooked in olive oil with garlic and Italian seasonings
• Carrots
• Gouda cheese

This salad was divine, and was easily as delicious as a slab of steak...and also, waaaay healthier. Other great salad ingredients could be:

• Avacado
• Nuts
• Sunflower Seeds
• Apple
• Pear
• Crab or Lobster
• Fish
• Steak
• Craisins
• Tomato
• Mandarin Orange
• Blueberries
  
• Grapes
• Cheese

The most important thing about creating a satisfying salad is to make it your own and be creative! Don't just grab a bag of iceberg lettuce and continue the terrible slog which has become the side salad, but instead, grab the green reins and design something delicious, and nutritious!

In my searching the internet for reviews of Raison D'Etre by Dogfish Head, I was surprised to find that it was reviewed relatively poorly with rankings in the high 70s and low 80s...This surprised me a lot because Raison D'Etre is one of my most favorite brews in all of brewdom...

My Rating - 89

Alcohol Content - 8.0%

Approx Cost - $10/six pack

Upon pouring, Raison D'Etre is a beautiful dark red, woody color. It has very minimal foam and smells very sweet, malty, and also interestingly earthy, perhaps because of the beet sugars used in the brewing process. This beer sips very sweetly, but doesn't have a strong taste of raisins - just an overall fruitiness. It also has some very gritty, organic overtones, which assault the taste buds causing an interesting kind of confusion between sweet and rustic qualities - a confusion that I love intensely. Like most of Dogfish Head beers, Raison D'Etre is incredibly rich and robust, meaning that more than one or two in a night can quickly become overwhelming; however, they do sip pretty easily up until that point. Raison D'Etre is a truly delicious beer that allows you to sit back, relax and perhaps ponder what the real meaning of being is...