Preparing and "Sheltering in Place"

I had a few photos to share with you from a few days ago, so I'm doing some catch up.  This is from the weekend!  Dayle took these when he walked the dog.  During this stressful time around the world, I thought sharing pretty photos might take your mind off your worries for a bit.  :-)

The snow fell in big fluffy flakes and it was so pretty.

Dayle and Mocha have a routine, they walk down our circular driveway towards the road.

Then back up the drive, the barn and our pasture to the right.

Now... we have been preparing for a long stay at home to try to protect ourselves from catching the coronavirus.  I actually googled "what to have on hand in case of emergency" and found a website called "Happy Preppers".  It was very helpful and as I scrolled down and read what they recommend to acquire and I made a long and extensive list.  Canned goods, flour, sugar, beans, baking things, a LOT of pasta of all shapes, rice, sauces, pet food, meats to use and to freeze, etc.  We have a shelf unit in our front entry closet that we use for pantry storage.

Then Dayle went through the whole closet and we tossed everything out of date and he organized all the new stuff.  Isn't he a good boy?  :-)

We started cooking healthier and at home as our new year's resolution, so we are already doing that.  I actually created this recipe years ago.  It's a creamy sauce pasta that is like lasagna.  I'll put the recipe up for you as it's delicious and is much easier than using the big lasagna noodles.  

Here it is on the plate, I use Mafalda noodles which are like a little version of lasagna noodles.  You make a sauce of 1 brick of cream cheese, a cup of milk and a tablespoon of Worcestershire, and then toss the cooked noodles in that.  Yum!

Teresa’s Creamy Pasta Lasagna-style Casserole

16 oz curly edged mini lasagna noodles (Mafalda) or wide egg noodles 

2 lbs lean ground beef

3 Italian sausage links, med

½ onion, chopped 

8 Fresh Brown Mushrooms, sliced 

1 67 oz. large jar of Prego pasta sauce, Traditional flavor

1 8 oz brick of cream cheese 

1 cup milk 

1 TBS Worcestershire 

2 lb grated mozzarella

1 1/2 cup of grated Parmesan or a mixture of Parmesan/Romano

Put a big pot of water on high and bring to a boil, add salt.  Begin sautéing ground beef, remove sausage from casing and cook with beef, chopping meat as it cooks.  Add chopped onion.  When meat is done, drain grease off.  Add mushrooms and cook with meat.  When mushrooms are done, add Prego sauce and stir and simmer.

When the water comes to a boil, add pasta and cook just until al dente as it will cook more while this is in the oven.

Before the pasta is done, put cream cheese, milk and Worcestershire in glass bowl and put in microwave for 1 minute, remove and stir until it becomes a smooth sauce.  Put hot pasta, well drained, into a bowl and pour  cream cheese sauce over it and toss the pasta until coated.

Oil a baking pan with olive oil and then spoon or pour in half the meat sauce.  Put the cream sauced pasta over meat sauce.  Put half the grated mozzarella on top, then half the Parmesan. Add other half of meat sauce, the rest of the mozzarella and top off with the parmesan.

Bake 45 minutes at 375 degrees covered with foil, uncover for 15 more minutes until the cheese is slightly browned. 

Above is a spike of flowers on my Shamrock plant.  Below is both my green and dark red plants.

Happy Belated St. Patrick's Day!  I got one new little decoration to add to my display, a little Irish lamb wearing a little green top hat.  :-)

I love my little Irish children and now they have a pet lamb.

I decided to name them, the boy is Patrick, the girl is Molly and the lamb is "Lambie Pie".  LOL!  We actually had a lamb/sheep for years and we called her that occasionally.  We got her from Dayle's cousin when their ewe wouldn't nurse her newborn lamb so they gave it to us as we had dairy goats and could bottle feed it.  Dayle came home in the middle of the night and saw a big box in the corner.. he came to bed and said.. "Why is there a black lamb in a box in the living room?"  LOL!

Dayle surprised me with a bouquet of sunflowers.  Darling husband.

One of my special daffodils in the big pot bloomed and we have a bloom in my brass bulb vase.  This one is named "Orange Progress".

I walked around the back yard and checked on the spring growth and saw the Bleeding Hearts are budding out.  

The Creeping Myrtle is in bloom all around the creek and waterfalls.

Well.. that's all for now.  If you're enjoying my blog posts, please know that your comments are what keep me going.  I so appreciate it when you take the time to say hello.  Thank you!

((hugs)), Teresa :-)