Gemelli with Sausage and Tomatoes

Yummy! I saw some low fat sausage in the store and wanted to try it. I came up with this dish and it was delicious.

Ingredients:

1/2 pound gemelli (or pasta of your choice)
12 oz. low-fat ground pork sausage
1 clove garlic
1-2 cups sliced mushrooms
1/2 cup heavy cream
4 cherry tomatoes, cored, seeded and chopped
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

Serves 4 ( 1 & 1/2 c. /serving) -6 (1 c./ serving)

Directions:

Cook pasta al dente (according to pkg. directions) and drain.

While the pasta is cooking, brown the sausage with the garlic and mushrooms over medium heat until the sausage is cooked through. Soak up any excess grease from the sausage with a paper towel, but there won't be much with the low-fat sausage.

Turn heat down slightly and add cream and tomatoes and continue to cook for a minute or two. When pasta is done add to the sausage and toss till well combined. Remove from heat.

Top with Parmesan cheese and serve.

Calories per serving : about 475 for 1 & 1/2 cup, 340 for 1 cup

Coconut!

I just made this cake for a church lunch a few weeks ago. I love coconut and this is one of my favorite cakes (although my mom's carrot cake is my all time favorite). It's the Coconut Cream Cake from The Ultimate Southern Living Cookbook (which I highly recommend if you're looking for a good cookbook, though it looks like it might be hard to find these days).

In addition to tasting so incredibly good, the nice thing about it is that even when, like me, you aren't a talented cake decorator, it still turns out great. The wonderful coconut hides any frosting flaws! Isn't it beautiful in a not perfect sort of way?

Vacation Silliness

My older brother sadly could not join us on our annual vacation this year and we all missed him. I tell you that to explain why he is missing from this picture. I spared him the silly door tags (which identified each of our rooms) I made for the rest of us which is what this is a picture of, of course.

ALOHA!

My family is coming for a visit. I live in a beach town and I decided to make this simple "sign" to welcome them made from several different beach pictures. I figure what says welcome to the beach better than "Aloha?" I put my sign on the first piece of furniture you see when you walk in my door. We'll see if they notice it :).