Cabbage Rolls

We decided we were up to making cabbage rolls this weekend - while not difficult to make, they are a bit time consuming to prepare, but definitely worth the effort. I have always relied upon my 25+ year old "tried and true" cabbage roll recipe (delicious in its own right) but decided it was time to "kick it up a notch", and added some spicy chorizo sausage to the hamburger and rice filling and added some extra zing to the tomato sauce. These babies will be mouthwatering after baking an hour in the oven .... suffice it to say, we're looking forward to dinner tonight! If you'd like the recipe, leave me a comment & I'll be more than happy to send it to you!

Salsicee con lenticchie verdi e salsa de pomodoro = Simply Delicious!

Andy made this meal for me last week and it was simply delicious! He found the recipe in "Jamie's Italy" Italy cookbook - I've included the recipe link in case you want to try it too:
http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/pork-recipes/sausages-and-green-lentils-with-tomato-s

Preparing for baby ...

wow, I think this is the longest I've gone between blog postings, but I'm back. I have been decidedly unmotivated about taking photos or doing anything creative since Christmas. The start to the new year wasn't exactly stellar. Sadly my father-in-law passed away on December 27 and Andy flew to England on December 30th to be with his mom. He came home January 16th and I have to say, the 17 days he was gone felt much longer. During the time Andy was away, the pain I had been experiencing for months in my right shoulder/arm escalated, making for many sleepless nights. Thankfully, I returned to a work on January 4 to a voicemail message from the sports medicine doctor's office, confirming my first appointment on January 26. Finally, hope was on the horizon! After reading the results of my shoulder arthrogram and undergoing some strength and resistant tests, Dr. Babins gave me his diagnosis: I had a frozen shoulder complicated by a 1 - 1.3 cm full thickness tear in my surpraspinatus muscle (one of the 4 rotator cuff muscles). To relieve the pain, he administered a cortisone shot, and gave me some light stretching exercises to do. My follow up appointment is Feb 25 and we'll see where we go from there. So that explains where I've been for the past 5 weeks!

Now for 2 pieces of most excellent news!

1. Lyden and Erin have set the date for the wedding - August 28, 2010. They have the church and the reception venue booked. Erin accepted my offer to make the wedding invitations; last weekend Erin decided on the design, and she and I worked up a prototype. We plan to go shopping for the supplies soon.

2. Rachel and Tyler are having a baby in June and just this week, the sex was confirmed - the baby is a girl!! I'm just a little more than thrilled .... I had been cruising all kinds of baby related websites for months now and saw so many cute ideas that I could make for a girl. One of the ideas I came across, was to embellish store bought baby standards, like these "onsies". Today I went through my fabric scraps and added the little bunny and the bird to the onsies my mom picked up for Rachel in December. What a simple way to kick up the cuteness factor!