Hot Coffee and Chilly Weather

Good Morning! This morning I'm drinking a large cup of coffee, the first of what I'm sure will be many, I'm also enjoying the beautiful chilly weather we are having here in Florida! It feels so good and helps motivate me and gets me really into the Holiday spirit because it just seems natural that the weather be chilly at this time of year!!

Let's see where to start. On Friday I made my new recipe of last week. I made Tortellini with Peas and Tarragon which I pulled out of the February 2008 issue of Real Simple magazine. This recipe was super easy and really tasty. We weren't sure if we even liked Tarragon but guess what we do! Here is the recipe:

1 pound frozen cheese tortellini

2 tbs olive oil

1 onion, chopped

3 tbs unsalted butter

2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

1 1/2 cup frozen peas

salt and pepper

2 tbs chopped fresh tarragon

1/2 cup grated Parmesan

Cook the tortellini according to the package directions. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and cook until soft, about 6 minutes. Increase heat to medium-high. Add the butter and cook until it turns golden brown, about 3 minutes. Stir in the garlic, peas, 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1/4 teaspoon of pepper and cook until heated through 2 - 3 minutes. Add the tortellini, tarragon and half the Parmesan and toss. Divide among bowls and sprinkle with remaining Parmesan.

I of course added more garlic and peas and I don't add very much salt at all since the cheese is so salty but it's not my recipes so you make any changes you like :)

I also did a bit of scrapbooking last week. I am excited to work on projects using pictures I just took. I don't scrapbook in any sort of order anymore. I used to try to do everything in chronological order but I would end up not feeling inspired and then I would do nothing! So thanks to all the blogs I visit and all the magazines I read I let myself off the hook and now I scrap what is inspiring me at the moment I get into the scrap room or sometimes I find I'm inspired, thus motivated to head into the scrapbooking room! And now that I do that I get a lot more done. So last week I worked on pictures from Nicole & Andrew's visit and also from Kevin & Trish's visit. Here are pictures of the pages I did from Kevin and Trisha's visit let me know what you think!

Yesterday I dragged Mikey for the 3rd straight year to Super Soap Weekend and Disney's Hollywood Studios. And for the 3rd straight year I didn't make it to the big stage show that ends the evening but we saw a lot of the people from the shows I watch and Mikey and I had fun riding Toy Story Mania twice so it was a good day. Unfortunately they aren't planning a Super Soap Weekend next year but hopefully one day it will be back and I'll make it all the way to the end we shall see!

It's full blown Thanksgiving planning here at the Taylor house now, I think we are coming up with some great things and I'm exciting to put this meal together. Naturally there will be loads of pictures and loads of leftovers so if you are in the area and want to stop by around Thanksgiving just let me know.

More Soon...