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Friday Pasta~ Greek-Style Garlic Shrimp & Orzo

Apr 28, 2012 by     2 Comments    Posted under: food, photos, recipes

Friday’s is the day I make pasta with the these 2 goals in mind:

  1. to try new recipes
  2. use the pasta I have in my pantry… which is still considerable.

This week I made this really tasty dish with orzo a small pasta and it was super yummy and it came together very fast. I made substitutions because I wanted to use up what I already have in the house to keep my expenses down.  Living in Spain, I would use this recipe as a 1st plate before the meat course, but it could easily be the main dish. I didn’t serve it with anything else but garlic bread would be nice or even a salad.

Greek-Style Garlic Shrimp & Orzo

Serves 4 main dishes or 8 as a 1st plate

Ingredients:

¼ cup olive oil

1 small red onion ( I used a yellow onion)

1 teaspoons  crushed red pepper flakes

1/2 cup Kalamata olives, pitted & chopped (I used regular black olives which were pitted but I tossed in whole)

2 teaspoons of lemon zest

juice of ¼  lemon

2 Tablespoon chopped fresh oregano leaves ( I used 1 teaspoon of dried)

6 cloves of garlic, minced (I used 4)

2/3 box of orzo pasta ( I used 250 grams)

1/3 cup of dry white wine

1 pint of cherry tomatoes

2 Tablespoons of chopped fresh parsley

1 lb of  small shrimp, deveined, peeled & tales removed ( I bought a frozen bag of small cooked shrimp and added it frozen)

8 oz of feta cheese

Cook the orzo as directed on the package in salted water until al dente, drain & reserve.

Heat the ¼ cup of olive oil , then add the onions, red pepper flakes and garlic. Cook for 2 min, then add the shrimp and cook for another minute more. Add the cherry tomatoes, parsley, olives and oregano, lemon zest, juice of  ¼ lemon & white wine and season with salt & pepper. Cook until the shrimp is  heated through.

Drizzle a bit of olive oil on the orzo to keep it from sticking in a serving bowl. Top with the shrimp mixture & crumble the feta cheese on top.

* I got this recipe from a Rachael Ray cook book I own.

The sour cream cutout cookies… re-visited

Dec 17, 2011 by     3 Comments    Posted under: blessings, Blogroll, food, photos

For those of you who are new to baking and thought the dough to be ‘too wet’… it is! When the recipes says to  to roll out on a ‘heavily floured’ board;  well that means, add the flour needed to make it manageable to work with, but don’t add so much that the dough is tough.

Here are some of my photos from this recipe I have been making for over 10 years: I did these yesterday and will make up several packages to give away. This recipe makes a lot!

 

A paella to celebrate the birth of Jude Baptiste Moree

Aug 7, 2011 by     6 Comments    Posted under: Blogroll, Family, food, photos, Spain

Here is a photo of the celebratory paella we had for the birth of Jude Baptiste, our 25th grandchild. The other couple talking to Anita are their French neighbors.

 

 

 

 

A new granddaughter

Aug 1, 2011 by     11 Comments    Posted under: blessings, Blogroll, Family, photos

Ava Katherine

Last week, on July 25th, our 24th grandchild was born to Bobbie & Ron DeVos. Ava Katherine DeVos has joined her siblings:

Joel

Alexandra

Jesse

Wesley

Riley

Winston

Audrey

& Annabelle at  home in Virginia.

Of course we are very excited and feel rich with God’s blessings.  She looks so much like her mom when she was born. So pretty!

The other DeVos kids.

Bobbie & baby #9 Ava Katherine

I need to use up the hot-dog buns!

Jun 6, 2011 by     No Comments    Posted under: Blogroll, food, Grocery Challenge, photos


I got these hot-dog buns on special last week…30% off. This week, I’ll be working at getting them used up. The obvious is to have hot-dogs for our 8pm (our lightest meal) one day this week. Other ideas include:

  1. make garlic toast
  2. grilled cheese & meat sandwiches
  3. sloppy joes

I’m determined to use the food in my pantry & freezer until it’s all cleaned out. The one thing that hinders this effort is when we have house guests and I need to buy something extra to round out my menu’s. Tomorrow will be my end to the 10 euros I had to spend last week and I’ll let  you know how I did.

 

Saturdays Meals

Mar 12, 2011 by     4 Comments    Posted under: Baking, Grocery Challenge, photos, recipes, saving money

Homemade pizza

Today is a big day for me in the kitchen. Making pizza for 25 is going to be a ton of work, but I’ll begin the chopping and shredding early in the day. I’ll start the dough  and get that in the fridge early on.  It’s going to be a lot of fun. I’m not using the grocery $ for this, but instead my personal allowance. That was I can stay on track with my saving for the upcoming trip to Germany in 2012.

Here’s my menu for today:

Breakfast:

John: Corn muffins, egg, & leftovers

Bobbie: 2 kiwi’s

Lunch:

We’re having all the LEFTOVERS in the fridge… including the soups, and stir fry.

Supper:

Pizza, salad & cake… this is what I’m serving for our guests but we’ll probably skip the cake.

party time!

A labor of LOVE

Jan 29, 2011 by     12 Comments    Posted under: blessings, Blogroll, Family, photos

Isn’t this the most beautiful quilt you have ever seen!?! The colors are gorgeous  for our beige walls and fits our bed perfectly. Cheri made this  quilt called Blooming Nine Patch. I looked on the internet to read about the history of this pattern but couldn’t find any information. Our son John made the comment that the instructor at Cheri’s quilting class said, ” no one makes Blooming Nine Patch and gives it away!”

I love being the recipient of such a lovely gift. Please leave your comments and any information about the history of this quilt.

Making Sausage

Jun 29, 2010 by     6 Comments    Posted under: Blogroll, Canning/Preserving, photos, saving money

Like I don’t have enough to do! Well, the garden and canning and now sausage making are the activities I do to:

  1. save money
  2. eat better
  3. learn new skills
  4. add to my pantry
  5. relax
  6. get out of the office
  7. be a better homemaker

Here are some photos:

Lots of Tomatoes!

Jun 28, 2010 by     4 Comments    Posted under: Blogroll, Canning/Preserving, Gardening, Grocery Challenge, photos

Man! I have tons of tomatoes on my 24 tomato plants! It looks like this year will be fantastic for canning tomatoes and for making  gazpacho.

here is the status on the other plants:

zucchini- we have eaten about 6 of them so far.

onions- wonderful! and I keep replanting them as I use them.

cucumber- one so far that will end up in my salad tonight.

peppers- lots of them forming and thankfully a good many jalapenos.

lettuce- I have mostly eaten it all and I should have re-planted more  often. I planted some about 2 weeks ago and I try to plant new seeds every couple of days.

Gardening

Jun 4, 2010 by     7 Comments    Posted under: blessings, Gardening, Grocery Challenge, photos, saving money

I’m very encouraged by my little efforts with my garden. Again, I only have a small patch of land in the back yard, but I’m determined Read more »