My Casa Bella

COME IN THE EVENING, OR COME IN THE MORNING;

COME WHEN YOU'RE LOOK'D FOR,

OR COME WITHOUT WARNING.

KISSES AND WELCOME YOU'LL FIND BEFORE YOU,

AND THE OFTENER YOU COME HERE

THE MORE I'LL ADORE YOU!

-Thomas Osbourne Davis



Welcome To My Casa Bella

My Casa Bella- means-my beautiful home- but it can mean so many other things. How you make your home a home. The sounds of children or pets playing. The aroma of scones in the oven or a lilac candle burning. The flowers blooming in your garden. The home grown vegetables ready to be picked. Grandma's quilt at the foot of the bed. A fire to curl up to with a good book. Or just a family spending time together with love, laughter and a good time.





















Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Southwest Spaghetti Pie (Gluten Free)

It's been awhile since I've posted recipes on here, but today I thought I should share this easy and delicious
comfort food.
 
It came out of a small magazine called "Hometown Cooking" not sure if they still publish that.
Anyway, they had this recipe in it and it is so good!!
Here it is:
(I tweaked it a bit for my taste, I'll put those in parenthesis)
 
Southwest Spaghetti Pie
 
8 oz of dried Spaghetti (I used GF Brown Rice Spaghetti)
1/2 cup milk (you can use non dairy if you need to)
1 egg
1 lb ground pork (I used beef it's what I had)
1 large onion, chopped (1 cup)
1  medium red or green pepper chopped (3/4 cup)
1 clove garlic (I used 4 cloves, love garlic)
1 Tbsp chili powder (if you can't handle heat just use half)
1/2 tsp ground cumin (I added more to taste)
1/2 tsp dried oregano (I used 1 tsp)
1/2 tsp salt ( I added to taste)
1/4 tsp ground pepper
1 (15 oz) can tomato sauce
1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
(I had Italian mix on hand)
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
 
Directions:
Cook spaghetti, (now some people who've cooked Gluten Free spaghetti have gotten quite frustrated, if you'd like to try it here is the way to cook it, water HAS TO BE BOILING, add salt to the water and a little bit of olive oil or whatever oil on hand, it helps prevent sticking. The trick with GF pasta is the water needs to always be boiling while it's cooking and you HAVE to stir every two minutes, to make sure the noodles don't stick. They won't stick if you follow these rules. Make sure there is enough room in the pot for the noodles to move around, do not cook any pasta in a small pot, it doesn't work well.
For this recipe I cooked the noodles for 10 minutes, they need to be al dente, which means when you bite into it, soft on the outside with a little firmness inside. This will cook through in the oven. It's simple, and so good, I do not miss regular pasta since I started eating GF pasta)
For all those who I may offend right now, sorry, but I broke the pasta in half, I know that's against the rules but for a casserole it's easier if you break them in half, in my opinion.
 
OK, after the pasta has cooked, drain well. Return pasta to the pot, add milk and egg and stir quickly into the hot pasta.
Transfer pasta to a lightly greased 3 quart baking dish.
In a large Skillet cook meat, onion, pepper and garlic until meat is cooked through.
Drain any fat. Add spices and cook for 2 minutes. Stir in tomato sauce next, (I added a teaspoon of sugar, helps with the acidity) cook 2 more minutes.
Spoon meat over top of pasta,
In a bowl combine the shredded cheeses and top meat with the cheese.
Bake uncovered for 10 minutes, or until bubbly. Let it stand for 5 minutes before cutting into.
ENJOY!!
 
It has a spicy kick to it and very flavorful. Leave me a comment and tell me if you liked it.
I served it with Gluten Free cornbread, it was so good!
We'll have more tonight.

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Bath Remodel and Sewing

So another before and after. Been here now almost two years and it never ends.
Always something to do, which is fine that's the point of having your own home, right?
I've been home for a week, sick, so sick I couldn't lift my head up. I thought I may have actually gone through a winter and not catch a cold.
WELL, this cold has made up for that. Coughing and sounding as if there is a dog barking inside of me. UGH!!
Anyway,
I was going through some pictures of projects and realized I haven't post any of them.
First one is of the half bath.
Oh that was a scary room. Very 70's with the gold and black.
Gold wallpaper, thankfully this was the only room in the house that had wallpaper.
Black vanity and mirror, and wait for it
Black toilet seat with that nasty cushion on it!!
Oh it was awful. Absolutely gross. And like everywhere else in this place,
it smelled.
So after removing the wallpaper, and the toilet and the strange toilet paper holder
Martha Stewart Moss green paint, new fixtures and new light.
Same vanity just painted white and painted the frame around mirror white as well.
 
And of course a new toilet. Painting above is from a friend who's dad is a very talented artist, I love his stuff and it went great in here with the colors.
Then later I bought some fabric to cover the vanity with. It's the only original thing in this house, other than the hot tub downstairs.
We plan on replacing the vanity, but in the meantime, I wanted to hide it, even though I painted the cabinet I still didn't like the way it looked.
Colors in there are moss green with eggplant color. Love those combinations.
Still have to finish some trim in here as well as throughout the house.
Also did some skirting in the laundry room.
Sink Before
Sink After
Well, that's it for now. There will be more, especially with the warm weather coming I hope to have a lot done with our back yard.