My husband calls me his guinea pig. He comes up with recipes in his head and I am the lucky recipient of his culinary gifts!

This is what we had last night. I call it Baked Cheesy Shells with Sausage.

Here’s the recipe:

1 bag of  small pasta shells (the big bag)

2 pounds of  loose sweet Italian sausage (or mix hot and sweet sausage OR turkey sausage)

1 jar of jarred spaghetti sauce (Myron used a 45 oz. jar. It made a LOT!!!!)

2  – 8 oz cans of diced tomatoes

1 medium/large onion, chopped

1 – 6 oz container of shredded Parmesan

minced garlic to taste

garlic salt/pepper

1  – 8 oz package of Italian blend cheeses or mozzarella

To prepare:

1. Boil and drain your shells and set aside. Myron adds a tablespoon of minced garlic to his water.
2. Saute your onions, minced garlic, and your sausage  together and season with the garlic salt and pepper to taste. If you like oregano or other seasonings add them.
3. When the sausage is browned, drain off the excess grease.
4. Mix the sausage and diced tomato with the sauce.  Heat up to a simmer and add in the drained pasta . Let sit for 10-15 minutes to cool down. Then mix in container of Parmesan.
5. Transfer to a long baking dish.  Spread  mixture evenly. (Ours is Pyrex.)
6. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 10-15 minutes uncovered.
7. Pull your dish out of the oven and cover with liberally with the package of Italian 5 cheese blend.
8. Bake until cheese is melted and bubbly and slightly browned on top, about 20 minutes.
9. Pull from oven, let cool for a minute. Serve, eat, and enjoy!

To make this a bit healthier, I would suggest using whole wheat pasta shells, low sodium spaghetti sauce, turkey sausage and low-fat mozzarella cheese. You might tried the sauce that has mushrooms in it or chop up some fresh mushrooms.

Myron used a huge jar of sauce and a lot of shells (the big bag) so we had tons of extra that didn’t fit in the the baking dish but we plan to freeze the excess for a later day.

Hope ya’ll like it!!!

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Do NOT take my goddamn stapler! I love this movie!

So as I mentioned before, I have a new manager. I’m not going to complain (because the only person who listens is my husband and he kinda has to), but let’s just say I’m still adjusting.

My new manager is not very personable and not just with me but with other people too. He has a tendency to just roll up on folks and issuing orders making requests. And one thing I absolutely cannot stand, loathe, hate, AND dislike is for anyone to just come to my desk, without at least saying good morning and just start barking out what they want or need me to do for them. And as such, I have had to institute my workplace home training regimen.

How does it work you say? Well, it’s rather simple. When your uncouth co-worker or manager comes to your desk and just starts talking about work, you interrupt with a big smile and say: “Good morning, uncouth co-worker/manager, how are you?”. They are normally taken aback and realize their rudeness and will respond with a greeting before proceeding on with their request. You may have to do this several times to get said person trained but be patient and you will be rewarded. I have already noticed some changes in my manager, who has realized that saying good morning and making a bit of small talk goes a long way to not being thought of as an ass.

Some other workplace home training methods that I have used is ignoring the person who likes to hang around while you are on the phone trying to conduct business and keeping your back turned to that dumbass who likes to come to your desk and hover and doesn’t have the good sense to get your attention. I can hear them roll up behind me, but I figure if you don’t have the sense enough to alert me to your presence, then you deserve to stand there like an idiot.

I’m a firm believer that interpersonal relationships at the office go a long way to making your work life easier, in particular if your job is dependent on getting information from other people or help from another department. I don’t go to work expecting to be BFFs with my co-workers but being pleasant certainly makes it easier and I believe it makes folks more willing to help you and put your request higher on their priority list.

So what say you fine commenters? Have you had to “train” rude folks at your office??

These shits right here are the devil incarnate. I won’t tell you how I embarrassed my husband last week at the grocery store by running to the candy aisle much like a lopsided crackhead….for an 8 pack of these things. *hangs head in shame*

Good thing they only make them once a year!

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Go to her spot, read all about it and look at all the pictures: http://beautifullycomplex.blogspot.com/2012/01/seriously-fun-weekend.html

See ya’ll later!

Nicole at Peace, Love, Nicole recaps her trip to South Africa to work at a monkey rescue facility. It’s a series so read them all.

La at Liquor, Loans and Love recounts her worse dates in hilarious fashion! Go here, then there, also here and finally wrapping it all up: here!

MrsTDJ is on the party line!

And finally: Slim Jackson’s pants are way too tight.

Enjoy!

I have almost 300 books on this thing!

So I did a little updating to the page on my blog where I was tracking the books I read in 2011. You can take a look at it here. I read 25 books! Not bad, not bad at all! I slowed down in the 4th quarter a bit but I finished the year out with a book in December. I think I’ll shoot for 30 books this year.

One thing I noticed is that per my usual, I am heavy on thrillers and light on chick lit and romance. I don’t really read “literary fiction” at all. Guess I’m not that cultured after all. *shrugs*

I do have some non-fiction that I really need to get to, such as Warmth Of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot so I’m going to bump them up on my to-be-read pile.

How many books did you read this past year? Have a goal in mind? What genres do you typically read? Gonna branch out a bit?

I used to wear foundation and powder daily but rarely do now. I wash my face with warm water, cold water  to close my pores, occasionally use a cleanser or a facial scrub and wear a moisturizer daily. That’s it. As I age (!), my little routine isn’t working any more. My skin looks dull and I have some hyperpigmentation above my left eye. Let’s not talk about the adult acne.  And I notice my T-Zone is acting up too. I never used to have that issue at all.*sigh* I’m lighter skinned so this isn’t a good look at all because EVERY flaw shows up and is harder to conceal.

So I need to step my facial maintenance game up. I did a quick search on the Clarasonic brushes and nearly fainted. The cheapest one is $120 bucks!!! But you have to pay the cost to have the boss ass skin right??

So I come to you dear commenters. What’s your skin care routine? Any tips to combat the dullness and fade these dark spots? What seems to work best for you? Natural remedies?

Maybe I’ll get some ideas so that I can continue to give good face.

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Here’s an excerpt:

The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year. This blog was viewed about 70,000 times in 2011. If it were an exhibit at the Louvre Museum, it would take about 3 days for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

All the best to your and yours for a fabulous, blessed new year!

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However, one thing my parents Honduran neighbors like to do is party. I mean Beyonce-style partay-ay-ay-ay! They don’t kick it a lot, but apparently Christmas Eve was a good a time as any for a throwdown. My parents said the music went on into the wee hours! My folks got NO sleep. LOL!

I mention all that because Myron and I went to my folks house for Christmas dinner. We pull up in the driveway and get out. I have my purse and gifts in hand and Myron was still behind me at the car, about to get the chitlins (that’s a WHOLE other story there) out. I had just made it into the garage when I hear someone scream, “Ayiiiiii!!!” I then hear “BUMP, BUMP, BUMP”!

I stick my head out of the garage and look across the yard. A friend of the neighbors had taken a nasty tumble between two parked cars in  their driveway. All around her are shards of broken Pyrex glass. She laid there dazed and confused.

I drop my stuff and sprinted across the lawn. Ole girl was still lying there on the driveway amongst all that damn glass! Myron got there to her first, so he and the neighbor lady who lived at the home were trying to lift the “victim” off the ground.  She kept mumbling something in Spanish and saying, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry” in English. Finally my dad comes outside, sees what’s going on and comes over to help. She was like dead weight but finally they got her up. The neighbor lady slowly escorted our “victim” into the house. We came over to my parents house, came inside and promptly cracked the hell up.

So as a Public Service Announcement to y’all I’d like to share the following tips:

1. Nylon knee-highs and yellow flip flops don’t mix.
2. Being drunk off your ass while wearing nylon knee-highs and yellow flip flops will probably lead to you busting your tail on the concrete driveway and getting trapped between a Honda Civic and a Honda CRV on Christmas Day.
3. It’s probably not a good idea to be carrying a Pyrex baking dish while wearing the aforementioned knee-highs and flip flops and being drunk off your ass….on Christmas Day.
4. No more drinking on Christmas Eve.

That was the hilarious start to our Christmas Day dinner. Can ya’ll top that??